Post by Shalie Matsuoka on Jun 15, 2011 16:25:26 GMT -5
In Character:
Name: Shalie Matsuoka
Nickname: Sha, Shal
Age/Year: 18/7th
Alliance: Supports the Order but is not actually a member. (She's not special enough! HA!)
Blood Status: Half-blood
House: Ravenclaw
Likes: Comic books, cars, potions, reading, small coffee shops, trying new foods, watching quidditch.
Dislikes: Big business types, bullies, discrimination, unnecessary violence, seafood (she's allergic), her half-sister Ayame, Gilderoy Lockhart (count her in as a betrayed ex-fan).
Fears: Acromantulas, werewolves, people she cares about dying (again), death eaters, fancy parties. Ooh, paralyzingly terrifying.
Goals: Complete school with good marks, balance a life in the muggle and magic worlds, become some sort of success, and survive. I think the last is probably a good idea.
Strengths: Good duelist in theory but not well practiced, is strong-willed and good under pressure.
Weaknesses: TERRIBLE with charms (what she thinks is most useful), can be too outspoken about ideals, still something of a social weirdie.
Personality:
Intelligent, as one would expect a Ravenclaw to be. Although she does read a lot, much of her knowledge comes not from books but from viewing the world around her. She took comfort in shutting out the world when she was a child, though as she grew older she realized that the best way to make it through life was knowing what the world had in store, not hiding from it. She doesn't regularly talk to very many people. Not because she is cold and arrogant as some might assume, but instead because she is not as good with people as she wishes she were. She has been taught the way to act in polite company but not really around people her own age. She is more accepting of others than a lot of people because she has seen some of the best and the worst in her own family members and doesn't want to hold strangers to a different standard. Being among high society has also taught her that what a family is like can severely affect the way that people see the world. Hence the words that have nearly become a slogan to her - "They were just raised that way." To her, circumstance does not determine who a person really is, only what they have become. She tries to at least grasp the way that others see the world in hopes of bettering herself. She wants to take care of people that she cares about but isn't always confident in doing so. She takes things that friends and family say perhaps too personally, and will resort to avoidance or the silent treatment rather than speaking to them about what is bothering her.
Now, these days Shalie is more social and optimistic – it seems that the more difficult the circumstances, the better she reacts to it. That will probably cause problems later on down the road with other people but it's a defense mechanism to keep people, including herself, from giving in to bad thoughts regarding everything. She still does view Slytherins the same as she always did, without judging them as a whole group, but would certainly not give the same treatment to a Death Eater! Not that she would have a chance in all likelihood, but it deserved to be mentioned that she's not quite that much of a tool. On her own she is cracking a little bit, not as well held together as she pretends she is.
Looks:
Hazel eyes that appear just brown on first sight, black hair and pale skin. She has fair skin bordering on pale, marked only with a few scars she got in her youth. She is about average weight, thin with the curves that you would expect in an eighteen year old. At 5'6" she has stopped growing. What she wears on the weekends depends a lot on her mood. For example, if she is frustrated with the wizarding world, muggle clothes it is. If she has gotten a letter from her father that upset her, she wears her witch robes. She has been known to wear light colored lace-up dresses on trips to Hogsmeade, with ribbons through her hair. A level of fancy she doesn't normally like to reach. Her hair is normally pulled back in a ponytail or just down in her face.
History:
koba matsuoka came from a strict muggle family who was, nonetheless, completely obsessed with wealth and status. his mother, the only decent addition to the family, had died when koba was two. He instead had to live with his father and stepmother. they would use any means to get their children to appear as they thought that the world would want to see them. this led to some abuse, and koba wanted nothing more than to escape this. he separated from his family when he was sixteen and changed his last name to his mother's maiden name. similarly, kimeko kayano was raised by her grandmother, the matriarch of a stereotypical pureblood family that hated anything less than perfect. her mother had fallen in love with an Irish squib and this was, of course, not acceptable. so kimeko grew up never knowing her father, and when she was seven her mother fled home after a fight, never to be seen again.
fortunately neither kimeko nor koba took the negativity into their own lives. they met when kimeko was nineteen and koba was twenty-two. they got married after only three months of courtship and shalie was along soon enough. things seemed perfect at first. koba knew that kimeko was a witch and didn't care either way. however, there were things that shalie didn't know about until she was older. koba matsuoka's company was under suspicion for the questionable income it was bringing in. kimeko was gone much of the time, and matsuoka resented her for it. he knew that she was running around in the wizarding world, something that he'd begun to see as a wall separating them from the closeness that a family should have. shalie quietly observed these changes in her parents. alone much of the time and homeschooled, she didn't have a real escape.
the drama within the household built up until one night kimeko left and never came back. shalie was utterly confused by the situation - her mother was loving and never let anything bad happen to her family. why would she change now? where koba matsuoka had accepted that she was gone in the only way he knew how (booze) shalie wanted to find out the truth. to this day, she still hasn't uncovered it. when she was eleven she got the letter to hogwarts, the school that her mother had attended in her youth. she happily went. however, it soon became obvious how much her homelife was going to affect her school life as well.
she had been stuck inside the house, separated from the other kids so long, that she didn't know how to act around them. when a few social interactions ended in disaster she gave up, shutting herself from the world. she read books, comics, and studied more often than she made time for her peers. that was the point of school anyway. eventually, though, with effort once she was tired of the solo life, she was able to come out of her shell and make friends with people from various houses, and enemies too. when she was seventeen she was almost taken from school when her father got news about what was going on in the wizarding world. even with how much he avoided contact with it, it still hit him eventually. at the end of her sixth year he did remove her from the school – but only temporarily, as the emergence of shalie's grandfather caused him to reconsider. as long as she was to come back after her hogwarts career had ended and live as a muggle.
one problem solved, many more brought to light over the summer. shalie's father was murdered by death eaters over the summer before the seventh year. it made her more afraid of death eaters and other radicals, something that had seemed so distant before it happened close to her. but at least now she doesn't necessarily have to leave the wizarding world behind when she is older! shalie has been living with her squib grandfather for the remainder of the summer.
Name: Shalie Matsuoka
Nickname: Sha, Shal
Age/Year: 18/7th
Alliance: Supports the Order but is not actually a member. (She's not special enough! HA!)
Blood Status: Half-blood
House: Ravenclaw
Likes: Comic books, cars, potions, reading, small coffee shops, trying new foods, watching quidditch.
Dislikes: Big business types, bullies, discrimination, unnecessary violence, seafood (she's allergic), her half-sister Ayame, Gilderoy Lockhart (count her in as a betrayed ex-fan).
Fears: Acromantulas, werewolves, people she cares about dying (again), death eaters, fancy parties. Ooh, paralyzingly terrifying.
Goals: Complete school with good marks, balance a life in the muggle and magic worlds, become some sort of success, and survive. I think the last is probably a good idea.
Strengths: Good duelist in theory but not well practiced, is strong-willed and good under pressure.
Weaknesses: TERRIBLE with charms (what she thinks is most useful), can be too outspoken about ideals, still something of a social weirdie.
Personality:
Intelligent, as one would expect a Ravenclaw to be. Although she does read a lot, much of her knowledge comes not from books but from viewing the world around her. She took comfort in shutting out the world when she was a child, though as she grew older she realized that the best way to make it through life was knowing what the world had in store, not hiding from it. She doesn't regularly talk to very many people. Not because she is cold and arrogant as some might assume, but instead because she is not as good with people as she wishes she were. She has been taught the way to act in polite company but not really around people her own age. She is more accepting of others than a lot of people because she has seen some of the best and the worst in her own family members and doesn't want to hold strangers to a different standard. Being among high society has also taught her that what a family is like can severely affect the way that people see the world. Hence the words that have nearly become a slogan to her - "They were just raised that way." To her, circumstance does not determine who a person really is, only what they have become. She tries to at least grasp the way that others see the world in hopes of bettering herself. She wants to take care of people that she cares about but isn't always confident in doing so. She takes things that friends and family say perhaps too personally, and will resort to avoidance or the silent treatment rather than speaking to them about what is bothering her.
Now, these days Shalie is more social and optimistic – it seems that the more difficult the circumstances, the better she reacts to it. That will probably cause problems later on down the road with other people but it's a defense mechanism to keep people, including herself, from giving in to bad thoughts regarding everything. She still does view Slytherins the same as she always did, without judging them as a whole group, but would certainly not give the same treatment to a Death Eater! Not that she would have a chance in all likelihood, but it deserved to be mentioned that she's not quite that much of a tool. On her own she is cracking a little bit, not as well held together as she pretends she is.
Looks:
Hazel eyes that appear just brown on first sight, black hair and pale skin. She has fair skin bordering on pale, marked only with a few scars she got in her youth. She is about average weight, thin with the curves that you would expect in an eighteen year old. At 5'6" she has stopped growing. What she wears on the weekends depends a lot on her mood. For example, if she is frustrated with the wizarding world, muggle clothes it is. If she has gotten a letter from her father that upset her, she wears her witch robes. She has been known to wear light colored lace-up dresses on trips to Hogsmeade, with ribbons through her hair. A level of fancy she doesn't normally like to reach. Her hair is normally pulled back in a ponytail or just down in her face.
History:
koba matsuoka came from a strict muggle family who was, nonetheless, completely obsessed with wealth and status. his mother, the only decent addition to the family, had died when koba was two. He instead had to live with his father and stepmother. they would use any means to get their children to appear as they thought that the world would want to see them. this led to some abuse, and koba wanted nothing more than to escape this. he separated from his family when he was sixteen and changed his last name to his mother's maiden name. similarly, kimeko kayano was raised by her grandmother, the matriarch of a stereotypical pureblood family that hated anything less than perfect. her mother had fallen in love with an Irish squib and this was, of course, not acceptable. so kimeko grew up never knowing her father, and when she was seven her mother fled home after a fight, never to be seen again.
fortunately neither kimeko nor koba took the negativity into their own lives. they met when kimeko was nineteen and koba was twenty-two. they got married after only three months of courtship and shalie was along soon enough. things seemed perfect at first. koba knew that kimeko was a witch and didn't care either way. however, there were things that shalie didn't know about until she was older. koba matsuoka's company was under suspicion for the questionable income it was bringing in. kimeko was gone much of the time, and matsuoka resented her for it. he knew that she was running around in the wizarding world, something that he'd begun to see as a wall separating them from the closeness that a family should have. shalie quietly observed these changes in her parents. alone much of the time and homeschooled, she didn't have a real escape.
the drama within the household built up until one night kimeko left and never came back. shalie was utterly confused by the situation - her mother was loving and never let anything bad happen to her family. why would she change now? where koba matsuoka had accepted that she was gone in the only way he knew how (booze) shalie wanted to find out the truth. to this day, she still hasn't uncovered it. when she was eleven she got the letter to hogwarts, the school that her mother had attended in her youth. she happily went. however, it soon became obvious how much her homelife was going to affect her school life as well.
she had been stuck inside the house, separated from the other kids so long, that she didn't know how to act around them. when a few social interactions ended in disaster she gave up, shutting herself from the world. she read books, comics, and studied more often than she made time for her peers. that was the point of school anyway. eventually, though, with effort once she was tired of the solo life, she was able to come out of her shell and make friends with people from various houses, and enemies too. when she was seventeen she was almost taken from school when her father got news about what was going on in the wizarding world. even with how much he avoided contact with it, it still hit him eventually. at the end of her sixth year he did remove her from the school – but only temporarily, as the emergence of shalie's grandfather caused him to reconsider. as long as she was to come back after her hogwarts career had ended and live as a muggle.
one problem solved, many more brought to light over the summer. shalie's father was murdered by death eaters over the summer before the seventh year. it made her more afraid of death eaters and other radicals, something that had seemed so distant before it happened close to her. but at least now she doesn't necessarily have to leave the wizarding world behind when she is older! shalie has been living with her squib grandfather for the remainder of the summer.