OOC Stuff

Why does my life not get any less busy? Is this what being a grown up is? I don't like it! Was doing stuff for my cousin's wedding thursday until Saturday, which was the actual wedding and so that was an all day ordeal, then yesterday I spent ALL DAY doing LSAT practice. Today I TAKE the LSAT AND have an internship interview. Again. And then I might/might not start said internship as early as tomorrow. Ack!

6 people shot, one of them killed and another in critical condition facing emergency surgery, by a white supremacist son of a bitch in my town tonight. I was at work when it happened (the newspaper), and went to the crime scenes – one shooter went to TWO different places, both of which are college kid hangouts – both of which were within five minutes of my school/work. Not in the "bad" part of town. Really close to home.

The nut job was out on bail for aggravated assault. He's been arrested in the past for other charges of assault, domestic violence, threatening to kill his ex girlfriend, threatening a witness against him (retaliation), obstruction of justice and attempted murder. Why the HELL was this guy on the streets? Now a 24-year-old guy who just got back from Iraq is dead just for standing at the door doing his job as a bouncer at a little hole in the wall club. He was shot three or four times close range. With a shotgun. Before the asshole made it to the bar, he stopped at a local bookstore/cafe/music venue where everyone from high school age on up in town hangs out and shot four customers and one employee. The four customers are expected to be okay but the employee, I think she's 23, was airlifted to Dallas for emergency surgery. She was shot twice with the shotgun, in the wrist and head, and will most likely lose her hand and might lose her life. The only other victim for whom I have any identifying information (via a witness, the public information officer for the police hasn't released it yet) is a mother. She's out of surgery and doing okay, just in shock. Was shot in the arm and leg.

Witnesses say the guy came into both places yelling about Hitler's birthday and white power. Yeah, he's so big and powerful that he has to shoot FIVE WOMEN at a BOOKSTORE with a SHOTGUN while none of them are armed, then proceed to take out the bouncer at a bar before going home and trying to kill himself while the police are busting down his door. He's in the hospital now in critical condition and I hope he survives so he can face what he's done.

The suspect's name is Ross Muehlberger and he was born a month after I was. we went to school together. I didn't know him, but it still is really strange to be this close to so many aspects of this crime. I just wish I knew for sure that the rest of my friends weren't hurt at the bookstore, several fo them hang out there. It doesn't do much good to be part of the media in this situation since that's information they won't release until the families are notified.

I really don't understand how there is still this much prejudice, bigotry and ignorance in the world. It's 2010, get the fuck over your superiority complexes.

ETA: Son of a bitch died around 2 o'clock this morning from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
His history:
January 14, 2008: Arrested because he sold cocaine to a 16-year-old boy and then stole a truck at gunpoint. He was 19 at the time. The guy he robbed was a classmate.

April 4, 2008: Indicted on above charges.

February 6, 2009: Charges dropped after he was arrested for burglary of a habitation. Guessing it was for insufficient evidence.

January 15, 2010: Arrested in aggravated assault case. On October 19, 2009 he stabbed two men in a local park. Neither died.

March 19, 2010: Indicted on above two counts of aggravated assault. Was released on bail.

April 3, 2010: Was on Texoma's Most Wanted list for obstruction of justice/retaliation for threatening a witness who had testified against him in the above case.

April 13: Apparently he was arrested, because he was charged with a new case of aggravated assault, this time family violence, and released on bond. $100,000.

April 20: While out on bail, shot five people, wounding four, killing one, and then fatally shot himself.

With a rap sheet like that, and the fact that he had jumped bail before (hence the most wanted list), WHY was he released in the first place? SEVEN DAYS after he gets out on bail for aggravated assault family violence (he beat his mother up), he goes on a shooting rampage.

Now I feel for his court-appointed defense attorney, who I'm sure feels guilty (even though he/she was only doing their job) for this. But the judge really should have used a little bit of discretion when deciding whether or not to let him out on bond. Or at least set it higher. I don;t know, I guess hindsight is 20/20 and really there's no one to blame but the shooter himself.

I miss you RP peoples.

I miss RPing. I realized a couple of days ago that... I don't do anything I actually like any more, RP included. And it sucks. Maybe I can find a way to do it again in some capacity because not doing anything I enjoy sucks. A lot.

Defensive driving, I do not have time for your bullshit. I don't even have time to have MEALS most days, and I certainly can think of about a zillion things more important I could be doing than watching your ridiculous videos for six hours of my life.

aaaand my phone is lost. well, not lost but it might as well be since it's at the place 2 hours away where I had an internship interview and I won't be able to get it back until they mail it to me on Monday, which means it'll get here like wednesday? blah.

I hate being so busy

So... I have my computer back. But I'm still on hiatus because apparently I have like, zilch in the way of RP inspiration right now. I'm working on actual short stories. ACTUAL WRITING that might get me somewhere. I'm in the process of interviewing for a way important internship at the district attorney's office, which could really help me get into law school. I'm also helping out on the campaign of a candidate for judge in our area, another law school booster. Add that to studying almost frenetically for the LSAT, attempting to keep my social life alive, and spending time with my boyfriend and RL is just... way more important right now, and way too time consuming. I might be on AIM a bit in the coming weeks. There are two games I'm planning on staying in for sure, Consecro and Solemnly Sworn, and I promise to try and show some sign of activity SOON. The others... I just don't know. I'm not feeling it. Maybe it's just a matter of me taking a break from RP made me realize that it's not as much fun any more as I thought it was. I'm kind of liking being a more active participant in the real world. I'm reading actual books and I love it. I'm writing for real, and I forgot how much I missed that.

I just really don't know.

Medra, I DO want to talk to you. We need to thread Lise and Freddie's engagement, and I promise you I am NOT dropping that plot and it is my TOP priority as far as RP goes. Maybe we can email log it and post it when it's finished because I love them and Lise is on the list of characters I most certainly will NOT drop. I'm really sorry about leaving you in a lurch!

Feel free to email me at britjannor@gmail.com. I don't hate you guys! I just... don't have the time or the inspiration to actually play! haha

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that I am still alive and WILL be coming back, but unfortunately in the process of moving programs from my laptop onto my mother's, I managed to delete... well, something that made MY laptop crash. Which is so cool, right?

ANYWAY, I'll be back as soon as my computer is fixed, though I might be reconsidering my... involvement in RP. Not quitting altogether, but downsizing, taking less time. I need to focus way more on RL than I have been, to be perfectly honest. There are a few games I'm definitely staying in, but other than that... I just don't know. All I do know is this not RPing for almost 2 weeks thing has been kind of fun, and I don't wanna go back to all the drama.

Britt

OH and if you need me, you can email me anytime. I can get that from my phone. britjannor@gmail.com.

avada_kedavra

Do it.

I woke up this morning and wanted to go check BW.

Sad day.

Notes to the general populace:

your ≠ you're
its ≠ it's
there ≠ their ≠ they're.

All together children! A contraction is two words put together, shortened with an apostrophe. Apostrophes are not just for fun. They mean something. I know it's confusing that it's LOOKS posessive but really means it is. I do. I'm sorry. There's no way around it but to just memorize it already.

I seriously feel like writing this on the article the person turned in. She didn't just misuse one of these. She misused them all. MULTIPLE TIMES. The article? Only two pages. This person is a senior in college, majoring in communications. HONESTLY

I've kept my mouth shut about all of this BW drama because I didn't feel that it was necessary to promote it any further. I've been convinced (and still am) that the best way to handle this situation is to just be adults about it. I understand that people are upset and I'm not saying you shouldn't be, but what exactly is it going to accomplish to continue bitching about it? It's over, or it should be. Now let the rest of us who still want to be a part of the game move on with it. If you're going to leave, we're sad to see you go but we can't make you stay. Don't panic over lack of plot because we are willing to help you find more. We'll make it work if we have people willing to move forward rather than dwelling in the past.

Just a week ago, everyone was raving about how awesome BW was, how much fun, how the players and characters were amazing. Every game has problems. These just happened to snowball and people won't seem to let it go.

I do feel as though I need to clarify some things. It was insinuated that I was manipulated into taking a co-mod spot to "Take the fall" for Joy. That is not true. I took the spot of my own volition because I care about the game and the players in it, I think it's worth making an attempt to save, and I feel obligated to give it a shot. I thought I could help. That's it. There was no manipulation involved, no pressuring, no nothing. I don't feel like I'm 'taking the fall' for anyone.

Maybe at this point it can't be saved. People keep leaving and at this point I'm not even sure why half the time. But sometimes it feels like people aren't even trying to find a way to stick around. I have not been contacted even once by someone trying to find a way to keep their characters in game. I'm not going to bite your head off. I want to help. I'm not always on AIM but I will check my email. Please, please if you're interested at all in keeping your kids, talk to someone. Don't just sit around and fret about how it's not going to work. We're going to make an effort as mods, but we need you guys' help.

I just hope we can move on from this, soon. I'm sick of watching this dead horse get beaten.

( Taken Characters )

Seriously. Someone be the bigger person already. Please?

Basic Character Info:
Name: Ava Elizabeth Rivers
Age: 23 (born November 16, 1978)
Occupation: Music writer for the London magazine "Set List" and musician by night
Socioeconomic Status: Lower-middle class.
Played By (please provide a link): Adrianne Palicki
Sexual Orientation: Straight
Hogwarts House/Years Attended: Gryffindor, c/0 1997
Circle of friends (if known):
Wand: 9 inch oak with unicorn tail hair core
Patronus: Magpie
Boggart: A coffin draped with the American flag -- i.e. her brother's funeral.

Strengths: Music (guitar, violin/fiddle, vocals), strong-willed, excellent at Charms, physically fit, good writer, loyal friend
Weaknesses: Attracted to the wrong kind of fellas (read: assholes), awful at Defensive magic, speaks before thinking, looks before she leaps

Personality: Ava is a study in contradictions. She is at turns the perfect daughter and the rebel, the romantic and the jaded player, the musician and the listener, the fighter and the pacifist. She's a thousand incongruities rolled into one. Ava is incredibly bright, both book-smart and street-smart, but in most situations she lacks focus. WHen it came to school her sraight-A potential (except for maybe defense) was wasted on B's and C's. She loves and wants to protect her friends but often lets her own best interests fall by the wayside. She has an uncontrollable magnetism to men who fall into the jackass category. She likes to pretend she's not looking for love when in reality it is what she wants. Despite too many let-downs, her self-esteem is untouched. She really is as confident as she comes across.

Appearance: Ava's not a waif. She's around 5'6 and has healthy curves. Her blond hair is cut along her jawline in a cute bob. Her blue eyes are always sparkling with a smile. She dresses casually most of the time, preferring to live in muggle clothes, especially jeans. She knows she's a pretty enough girl and she knows how to flaunt her assets without looking like a whore. If you see her and she's not working, her guitar is probably nearby.


Personal History (three paragraph minimum): Ava was the first daughter of muggleborn witch (educated in New Orleans) Marlene Rivers and muggle air force pilot Michael Rivers. Her older brother Adam was less than pleased, but he grew to love his baby sister in that big-brother way that always involved a little more protection than she wanted. Her childhood was spent moving around the American south. She spent a couple of years at a time at air force bases in Texas (mostly in Texas), Louisiana, Alabama, and then when she was ten (her brother had already started wizarding school in New Orleans), her father was stationed in the UK for a four-year period. She and her mother moved with him over there, and she was living on an American air base when her Hogwarts letter came.

At first her mother was skeptical about sending her daughter to school in a foreign country when they would be heading back stateside within two years, but Ava was a persuasive girl and decided she wanted to go to school at Hogwarts instead of back in New Orleans.

She'd grown up with a magical background from her mother's side, but they'd also all lived as muggles, putting her at an about average knowledge level coming into school. She knew nothing about quidditch, but was quick to spout off the merits of soccer as opposed to it! She also tried to teach several of her peers how to play American football, a process that ended in a few successes but general failure.

She was an average student, made friends easily enough, and had fun during her time at school. When the time came to graduate, Ava didn't really know what she wanted to do with her life. Her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and she went back home to Louisiana to be with her during treatments, but when the cancer went into remission, Ava decided to take the muggle education route. She enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin and spent three semesters walking up and down sixth street listening to (and playing) music, writing music articles for the university newspaper and local Austin music zines, partying, and generally not doing well in school. When she was placed on academic probation at the end of her third semester she decided to just call it quits.

She signed on full time at Texas Music magazine. She interviewed and reviewed artists throughout the state, traveled around to concerts, and continued playing her own music on the side. She was playing at the Continental Club in Austin one night when a record label executive approached her. To Ava, this was a dream come true. She signed the contract and a few months later, flew to New York to record an album.

When she heard the final edited tracks, she was livid. They had overset her music with heavy hip-hop beats, changed the sound entirely, and passed it off as hers. It was just wrong. She couldn't get out of the contract for the album, but when they told her it was time to tour she told them they could fuck themselves and went back to Austin to try and rebuild her reputation.

A few months ago, she got offered a job working for a London-based music magazine that covered music in the UK and in Western Europe. She jumped at the chance to go back to the UK, and has just moved back to England, where she's establishing herself on the local wizarding and muggle music club circuits as well as doing her job writing.

Goals for the game:
+Make a mark on the wizarding music industry if she can
+Find a guy her friends APPROVE of (not likely)
+Reconnect with old friends/make new ones
+Stop smoking. Again. And again.

( Character List: CT )

Name: Angelina Grace Wood (nee Johnson)
Age: 25 (birthday: October 25, 1977)
Occupation: Special Teams Coach (Chasers) for Puddlemere United
Socioeconomic Status: She's a professional Quidditch coach and her husband is a professional Quidditch captain. They have money.
Played By (please provide a link): Amber Stevens
Sexual Orientation: Straight in general, Oliver Wood in particular
Hogwarts House/Years Attended: Gryffindor, C/O 1996
Circle of friends (if known): Oliver Wood (Hubby), Fred and George Weasley, Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet, Victoria Frobisher, Saffron Capper
Wand: 11 inches, holly wood, dragon scale core
Patronus: Kestrel
Boggart: Enclosed spaces

Strengths: Flying, tactical plans (i.e. Quidditch plays), leadership skills, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, loyalty, bravery
Weaknesses: Can't play Quidditch or do other things because of her shoulder, which causes her varying levels of discomfort on a regular basis. She's horrible at potions and charms. She gets herself into fights she can't win.

Appearance: Angelina's pretty enough. At least, that's what she thinks about herself most of the time. She's never been overly pleased or displeased with her appearance; it just is what it is. She's one of the girls that looks good rolling out of bed in the morning, which is a very good thing since she rarely puts any effort into getting all 'tarted up.' Half the time she just wears muggle jeans and her Quidditch boots everywhere. She does have a secret love of high heels, but she rarely wears them because it's just impractical. Her hair is long, mainly because she can't be bothered to get it cut. Maybe someday. Instead, she just normally wears it in a ponytail or braids. It's easier than trying to fix it. She's got a thin frame, but not a breakable one. She's got enough muscle on her from Quidditch to hold her own. She used to be proud of the scars she had from Quidditch, and to a point she still is, but now the old "battle scars" are just reminders of what she cannot do any more. The true battle scar, the magical wound on her shoulder criss-crossed with surgical and treatment scars as well as the initial damage from the hex sustained during the final battle at Hogwarts, is one she still doesn't like to talk about or acknowledge. It's there and it always will be. She could have cosmetic healing done to get rid of it, but maybe it's her pride that won't let her do it. Instead, she keeps the scar as a reminder of what she fought for, what she survived... as well as what she lost.


Personal History (three paragraph minimum):
Angelina was born the week before Halloween, the first daughter to two loving parents. For all the infant knew, her parents were nothing but another well-adjusted, happy family. She had everything she needed. Her father was a businessman specializing in international artifacts trade and her mother stayed at home with Angelina, quitting her job as a photographer for the Daily Prophet to spend more time with her daughter. Angelina remembers very little about any of this at all, and has only one photograph of her birth parents with her as a newborn.

To this day, she only knows that they died in some sort of skirmish during the first war, perhaps caught in the crossfire and killed by stray hexes. She's never asked and perhaps she never will. She has no idea that her father was a death eater and her mother was a staunch supporter of the death eater cause and that they were killed fighting Order members in the first war.

After the death of her parents just shy of her first birthday, little Angelina has nowhere to go. She had an aunt, much older than her mother, who had already raised four children to adulthood and didn't want to start over again with a toddler. Her father had been an only child and she had no surviving grandparents. When her aunt, her godmother, decided not to take her, Angelina was placed in the wizarding children's home in Whitechapel, London. It was a few months later when she was placed in her first foster home. She was the only child in that house, as the parents were considering adoption and wanted to take on only one child rather than a handful. For three years, until her fifth birthday, Angelina was raised by the muggleborn couple. They were going to adopt her, she was going to be their daughter. To a young Angie, that seemed like about the best thing ever since she saw them as her parents, having remembered no other people raising her. Then, Margaret, her foster mother, got pregnant with her own child. They didn't need to adopt any more. Angelina was sent back to the orphanage in Whitechapel, feeling devastated, confused and betrayed. She didn't know what she'd done wrong.

Her second foster home was almost a year later. She was placed with a couple in Cheltenham with six other foster children of ages that varied from infants to sixteen year olds. The older children were all off at Hogwarts for most of the year, but there were four kids in the house under the age of eleven. Angelina had fun playing with the other kids but didn't want to get attached to her foster mother and father. She had a feeling it wouldn't last, just like the other one. A few months after her arrival, she started acting out.It wasn't because she wanted to be bad or get into trouble, it was just there were so many other kids in the house and Angelina didn't know any other way to get attention. That, and she always had an entirely too high energy level and not enough activities to get rid of it. Less than a year later, she was returned to the orphanage. She was in an out of five more foster homes before the age of eleven, when she finally got her hogwarts letter.

She'd grown up in wizarding company, but the lack of individual attention either in the children's home or the foster homes where she split her time meant that she was behind most of the students with the exception of the muggleborns even entering Hogwarts. That, and she'd never even flown on a broom, much less played Quidditch. While she struggled through most of her first year classes, flying was absolute heaven. Even though she couldn't join the team as a first year, she joined in on practices as often as the captain would allow. She had natural skills at the game, a sixth sense about where the quaffle was going to be and how she could get to it. Not to mention she was fearless in the air and it definitely made for a good player.

Her second year, she made the team under the captainship of Oliver Wood, and the rest was history. She skated by in her classes barely passing, but on the pitch she was home. Among her best friends were the captain himself, Fred and George Weasley (who she LOVED getting into trouble with, didn't even mind the detentions!) and the other Chasers, Katie Bell and Alicia Spinnet. When it came time for Oliver to graduate, she promised him she would continue the hard-practicing traditions he'd set, and she did. She might have just barely passed enough NEWTs to justify going to school, but her Quidditch skills were solid and her record spoke for itself.

When she turned 17, in October of her sixth year, Angelina aged out of the foster program. She was quite literally on her own. Unless she stayed with friends over breaks, she was completely at a loss. Her summer and Christmas breaks for her sixth and seventh years were spent shufffling between friend's places, or staying at the school when she needed to. It was rough, to say the least, and wore on her quite a bit.

Graduation came as a huge relief. She was finally going to be able to have a job and support herself and stop worrying about where she was going to live for the next month. She was scouted during her seventh year by the Falcons, the Harpies and Puddlemere. Her first choice was to play for the Falcons, but she wound up falling short of qualifying and instead landed a spot on the reserve bench for Puddlemere, where she was reunited with former captain Oliver Wood. She loved pro Quidditch. She couldn't see doing anything else with the rest of her life, and didn't want to even imagine it.

Then, the final battle at Hogwarts in 1998 changed everything. During the fight, she took a nasty hex to her left shoulder. It should have killed her, and would have if it would have hit another few inches to the side. As it was, she went down, in excruciating pain and barely able to stay conscious. Oliver Wood saved her life by carrying her out of the middle of the action to get healing.

She was in St. Mungo's for over a month. The dark magic in the hex left her ill and weak, and the wound itself was so bad that healers nearly amputated her arm. She was told from the beginning that she would be completely unable to play Quidditch again. Devastated, she tried to withdraw from her friends, who thankfully would have none of it. If not for her friends at her bedside during that time in the hospital, she doesn't know if she would have been able to stay sane.

She couldn't help it. A few months after she got out of the hospital and had rehabbed for awhile, she tried to play again, getting some easily bribed healer to sign off that she was fit for play. Halfway through the practice, she tried to throw the quaffle and nearly went down because of the pain.

Her career was over.

She took a position with Puddlemere as the Special Teams Coach for Chasers and tried to adjust. Being around Quidditch wasn't even a choice. She had to. She couldn't leave it, no matter how much it hurt to see others playing the game she loved. In 1999 she started dating Oliver Wood casually. Over the next couple of years, it got more and more serious.

In late August, 2001, Angelina had a huge scare. She was late. Scared to death, she took an at-home pregnancy test and found that she was pregnant. Not quite ready to believe it, she told Oliver that she thought she might be and the two of them took a trip to the healer's. The test was most definitely positive. Oliver and Angelina would be having a baby in May of 2002. They decided to get married in early November, and while it's all been really scary, Angelina can't help but be happier than she can remember since before she lost her ability to play Quidditch. Maybe her path has led her in a different direction than she planned, but she likes where it's going.

Goals for the game:
+ have a baby
+ make her marriage work no matter HOW hard it is
+ see more of her friends
+ work her way up to head coach at Puddlemere
+ regain more use of her arm no matter how much it hurts
+ be a good mum and make sure her baby has the childhood she never got to have

( Daisy Hookum--Waddiwasi )

( Evie Finch--The Boggarts )

( Daisy Hookum--The Boggarts )

( Catriona Davies--The Boggarts )