January James (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
holdmyearrings) wrote2018-02-08 02:28 pm
holdmyearrings) wrote2018-02-08 02:28 pm
january james
GENERAL
NAME: Giannalisa Isidora Sebastiana James
NICKNAMES: January is the only name she'll answer to since the second grade. She went through a phase of trying out various alternative names and that one stuck.
AGE/DOB: 17, August 26th
BLOOD STATUS: Pureblood
GENDER/PRONOUNS: Female, she/her
SEXUALITY: Currently? Very interested in kissing all the cute girls and rubbing it in her parents' faces. She does have plans to procreate with Yancey Montgomery someday so their child can have the most amazing lips known to mankind.
HOMETOWN: Hoboken, New Jersey. She likes to tell her parents she's going to move to Loveladies when she graduates and they don't find it nearly as funny as she does for some reason??
CONCEPT: Aspiring auror craves attention, finds it in all the wrong ways.
PHYSICAL
APPEARANCE: Bold, flashy colors. Animal prints. Skin tight clothing. Big earrings. Big hair. Lots of makeup. Is there anyone at Gooseberry who hasn't seen her cleavage?? Also, damn, those lips.
HEIGHT: 5'5", but there's always a few inches being added by heels.
PB: Chloe Bridges
PERSONALITY
LIKES: flavored chapstick, high heels, broom racing, Transfiguration, drinking games, cheap beer, true crime novels, cold cases, bonfires, pendulum necklaces, the shore, dad jokes
DISLIKES: hand-me-downs, being the middle child, Divination naysayers, muted colors, "granny clothes" (whatever those are),
PERSONALITY:
Everything about January screams "look at me!!!" Big hair, big earrings, big personality. She's a peacock dressed in skin tight neon clothing with a voice that carries well across camp and a pair of unforgettably large lips. As far as she's concerned, any impression is a good impression and she's here to make one. January has been scrambling all her life to carve out some recognition and she doesn't really care how she gets it.
At her core, January's a simple girl. She wants attention, craves it even, and will go to whatever lengths necessary to get it. At home, she's the middle daughter, convinced that she'll always be destined for third place in her parents hearts, and refusing to accept this lying down. Being well mannered and abiding by the rules has brought her nothing, while acting out and being contrary simply for the sake of being contrary has garnered her plenty of attention. That girl at Cotillion wasn't even that cute. But still, totally worth it. Paris'll still be there when she graduates.
If January had to pick a mantra, it would absolutely be 'work hard, play harder'. Academically, she's a model student, pushing herself to the extreme as she chases down that 4.0. Outside of class, though? January's is at all the parties, dancing on all the tables, and getting completely shit faced by the end of the evening. Whatever prefect decides to deal with her that evening receives many drunken love proclamations on the journey home. She might feel like Death the next day, but she'll always insist it was worth it, even when there's a surprise Monday morning quiz.
January's fun, a little weird, and always 100% herself. At least, that's what she insists. There's no time wasted repressing her emotions or filtering out any of her thoughts. Want to hear about how her particular piece of the world is shit, she'll tell you. Does her breathe smell? Hey, no big deal, everybody stinks sometimes. In fact, now everyone at the table should check this out. Attention for being a gross teenage boy is still attention!!! This is great!!!
January has a death wish. Okay, not really. But she discovered early on that getting injured or even risking getting injured is bound to get her attention. She's broken several bones by now and she's fine and this is really just encouragement to keep trying stupider things. Her favorite part is getting to act like the tough hero while people cluck over her.
It's the 'work hard' part of January's philosophy that found her sorted not in the house of heroes last year, but in Hufflepuff. Given her big dreams of being an auror, it was something of an ego blow, but the hat hadn't made a mistake. While she's hardly exemplary of all the house's ideals, January does tick off quite a few more of the boxes than it may seem at first glance. She's hardworking and dedicated towards her goals, but she's also surprisingly loyal, tolerant, and even.. kind?? Anyone willing to accept her, warts and all, will get the same and anyone she counts as a friend can expect her to always have their back.
Speaking of friends, dating January is a whirlwind. She's fun, she's zany, and within a couple weeks she's annoyed with the whole thing. That said, she takes the "let's just be friends" concept very seriously and anyone who's survived the gauntlet of dating her finds themself with a friend for life. It's not the most conventional way of making friends and it's not the only way she does, but an unusually high number of people she calls friend have survived Hurricane James.
Some final notes:
+ Very very competitive and incredibly easy to egg into a competition.
+ Also? Kind of a diva.
SKILLS
LANGUAGES SPOKEN: English only.
PATRONUS: A bengal tiger. [She's not in Occlumency and she missed the Patronus workshop, but as someone seriously interested in becoming an Auror, she would have sought out additional help if she failed to cast during this year's workshop, so I guess.. roll for her and let me know??? Or I could say she's currently working at it with Ms. Lilywhite's extra sessions!]
SKILLS:
— Transfiguration. The James family is not nearly as wealthy as most of the families they rub shoulders with, but they do have a reputation to uphold as purebloods. Quite a bit of the belongings around their household are actually transfigured from cheaper objects, or even animals. (Which is ew, but.. Wizards.) Transfiguration as a practical matter is a skill that's been passed down to January as well and she excels in it. Her shoe collection, for example, is actually just two pairs of shoes she regularly transfigures to match the outfit of the day. One of her favorite party tricks is transfiguring her nose into various amusing shapes (the drunker, the better). While she could have qualified for Animagus Studies, she opted to continue her work in Divination instead.
— Academics. Despite all outward appearances, January is aggressively on top of all her studies and won entrance to Gooseberry based on her academic record. She's very smart and organized, even if all her binders are neon pink animal prints, and is a regular fixture at study groups.
— Hold My Earrings. January's been in a scrape or two or... more. She's not afraid to throw a punch when it's necessary, or, well, she deems it necessary. She got into a number of fights last year at Hogwarts, though her status as a Hufflepuff left most students wanting to avoid the embarrassment of reporting it to a prefect or teacher.
— Ballroom Dancing. A side-effect of being raised among blueblood society is that January can fake her way through most standard ballroom dances. She could be better, but her younger sister quickly outshone her dancing skills and therefore received all the praise so January abandoned the whole thing.
— Running in Heels. And looking good while doing it. Totally a noteworthy skill.
— Burping the Alphabet. She can't make it all the way through... yet.
HISTORY
FAMILY MEMBERS:
Hugo James. Father, pureblood. Aesthetic Consultant.
A transfiguration genius essentially working as a wizarding cosmetic surgeon. Hugo's had his wrist slapped on more than one occasion for offering his non-invasive!! fast healing!! services to no-maj clients.
Francesca James (nee Gallerani). Mother, pureblood. Actress. Author. Fashion Designer. Philanthropist.
Frannie has a variety of hobbies that she claims to be professions, but she's by far most successful at pretending to be far richer than she actually is. Her face changes with the seasons, but it's always inhumanly beautiful and not reflective of her age.
Donatella James. Older sister, pureblood, 23. Queens School of Magic graduate. Franchise owner of two tanning salons.
Valentina James. Younger sister, pureblood, 15. Sophomore at Queens School of Magic.
Bernardo Fiori. Future brother-in-law. Gym franchise owner.
While he's not a pureblood, he is an enterprising young man and Donna's choice. They're currently engaged and set to get married over Spring Break with plans of starting their own gym & tanning salon empire.
Leonardo Fiori. Future brother-in-law. Former Ebonhide. Auror trainee.
Has anyone ever met Saint Leo and not adored him?? January corresponds with him regularly about how his auror training is going and what to expect when she (hopefully) starts next year.
A variety of aunts and uncles on both sides, some engaged in more unsavory activities than others.
HISTORY:
While Cecelia Gallerani's portrait may have been hanging at Hogwarts, things for the Gallerani family on the other side of the pond weren't quite so auspicious. Though the family could still claim the prestige of keeping its bloodline pure, their fortunes were quite another matter. Frannie Gallerani was not the witch to turn things around. She wasn't even that good of a gold digger. Hugo James, though pureblood as well, didn't come with a family fortune attached, being one of a handful of siblings and already having blown through his trust fund by age 22.
This fact didn't come to light until after the marriage and the birth of their first daughter less than nine months later. By then feelings and children had complicated matters and rather than filing for divorce, Frannie opted to be resourceful. If they couldn't be rich, they sure as hell were going to make everyone think they were. By the time Frannie was pregnant with her second daughter, the James family had clawed their way onto every guest list and their house sparkled with chandeliers and other baubles transfigured from thrift store finds.
Though she can't remember them, January's certain those two years that she spent as the baby of the James family were the happiest of her life. Unfortunately, by the time she was old enough to process new memories she'd become the filler episode between eldest daughter Donatella and beloved baby Valentina. Not bad, but easily forgettable. Every new triumph was something Donna had already accomplished and was met with lukewarm applause. And yet when Tina attempted the same things that January (then still Gianna) had conquered, everyone was reminded how important it was to rally support behind her.
January wasn't content to be the filler episode. While the girls were tossed into the various lessons expected of promising society daughters, for financial reasons all three were sent off to Queens School of Magic rather than being enrolled in something more prestigious (and more expensive). January soon distinguished herself in the classroom, bringing home top marks that, while earning her some much craved for praise, always seemed to come along with the remark "just like Donna".
Tired of being compared to her older sister, January came home from school one day after a lesson on the Second Wizarding War and made a fuss about a big announcement she had: she was going to be an Auror when she grew up. Now that wasn't something they could compare her to Donna for. The reaction from her family was.. not entirely what she'd expected. Her mother was generally patronizing while her father made some jokes about how Uncle Vinny was going to have to watch out for her. It ended up being exactly the reaction needed to turn childish bragging into a serious ambition.
Fast forward to middle school. By now, January had discovered that acting out was the simplest solution to getting attention from her parents. Sure, getting in trouble was no fun, but it was at least some form of attention. Acting out at that age came in two very simple forms: blowing her grades and getting into fights. The scrapes were as often physical as they were magical.
After a particularly nasty incident where January attempted to transfigure a classmate with a spell well beyond her grade level, a concerned teacher pulled her aside for a serious sit down. She was bright, but unchallenged. It didn't have to be that way, though. It was typical for QSM to lose its high school aged students to more prestigious institutions and there was still time for January to turn things around and qualify for one of those programs.
Now here was something Donna could never do, having already graduated from QSM. January dug through the various pamphlets presented to her and found herself most sucked in by the marketing mumbo jumbo on the Gooseberry pamphlets. Properly motivated, January pulled her grades back to where they'd previously been, jumped through various interview hoops to assure everyone she was properly remorseful about that kid's nose, and managed to snag herself a scholarship to her chosen school.
Those first two years at Gooseberry were great. The classes were engaging. Coppertale felt like home. Even her parents were proud, no longer having to dodge the topic at parties about what school at least one of their daughters attended. It was also her first taste of being away from home, no longer defined by her sisters, and the freedom was as intoxicating as the cheap beer in the Grotto. She partied hard and dated often. Her romantic misadventures always went the same way: some boy caught her interest, she bullied him into dating her and a couple weeks later she got annoyed and dumped him. Eventually she started joking that was just how she made friends. (Yancey Montgomery, Daniel Notoriano, and Ferdinand Ayers were among her victims.)
Two years into Gooseberry and her parents weren't nearly as impressed as they used to be. Donna had just signed a contract for her first tanning salon. The only option January had to one-up her sister was to get involved in the exchange program. Expecting to follow in the footsteps of Harry Potter, January's ego was not prepared to be sorted into Hufflepuff. She also wasn't prepared to find herself sharing a room with Riley's former cutieboo, Ellie.
Being pursued in hopes of replacing one American girlfriend with another was a new experience for January and one she found she thoroughly enjoyed. At least, for awhile. Her usual pattern of dumping and becoming friends didn't work with Ellie. Things got tense in the dorm. The end of Junior year approached and in the fine tradition of so many Gooseberry students, January fled the country to avoid dealing with a bad breakup. Okay, that's not entirely true. The Divination program at Hogwarts was a joke compared to Gooseberry, January was regularly getting into scrapes with the girls from Slytherin, the party scene at Hogwarts was seriously lacking and it reeeally wasn't the best place to be if you wanted to kiss a bunch of cute girls.
So back it was to Gooseberry, warts and all. Which apparently now included kidnappings and forest monsters.
Other notes I am not cramming into the above:
+ The first thing she did when she was let loose on Hogwarts was find that painting of great-great-whatever-grandma and take a selfie with it.
+ Her parents refused permission for her to go on the school trip this year after she made a huge spectacle of making out with another girl at Cotillion.
SCHOOL
YEAR: Senior (Grade 12)
HOUSE: Coppertale, Hufflepuff
SORTING: January could have easily fit in at Azurcrest (work hard, party harder is basically her mantra), but Coppertale appealed the most to her competitive, attention-craving neediness.
WAND: Dogwood, Thunderbird tail feather, 8 inches.
FAMILIAR: None.
CLASSES: (core) Charms, Hermeticism, History of Magic, Potions, Transfiguration; (electives) Astronomy, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Wizard Literature; (advanced) Divination
ADVANCED STUDY: Divination. Occlumency wasn't offered to sophomores and given that Mr. Chettri had just famously saved the MACUSA president from dark wizards, it didn't seem so unreasonable for a young Auror wannabe to opt to take the class when it got added to Gooseberry's curriculum. January typically practices divination by pendulum, but she's been experimenting with strings of fate concepts.
SENIOR PROJECT: January wants to show that Divination has its place alongside more traditional Auror techniques. She's built crime boards of a couple famous cold cases and has been hoping to uncover new angles on the cases by trying out different divination techniques to see if she can find hidden patterns in the web of strings.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: January's one of those students that doesn't accept anything less than a 4.0 and she insists on taking the heaviest course load allowed simply to prove she can. Her strongest class is Transfiguration, a subject that she notably excels at. She's not nearly as strong in DADA as she would like to be, all things considered, and has to seek out some tutoring. History of Magic, Astronomy, and Wizard Lit are largely filler courses but that doesn't mean she'll let her grades slip in them and sometimes the subject matter does end up crossing over into her interests.
At Leo's suggestion, she does receive some tutoring in Occlumency and other general Auror aspirant preparation from Ms. Lilywhite.
EXTRACURRICULARS:
— Cheer. January favors the dancing to the tumbling, but she's never afraid to try out a new stunt. Throw her in the air! Let her climb to the top of the pyramid! She's gonna blow smooches to her girl Riley while she's up there.
— Choir. Not the most remarkable voice, but she can carry a tune and never struggles with projection. January's an alto.
— Drama. January is not missing out on an opportunity to force everyone to pay attention to her.
— Duelling & Fencing. January's not much of a fencer, but she tries. As a Duellist, she favors flinging Transfiguration spells in creative ways to take her opponent off guard.
OOC
NAME: Manx
EMAIL: mahoushoujomanx @ gmail
CDJ: n/a
OTHER PREFERRED CONTACT: Dropbox
TIME ZONE: EST
TIMETABLE