Forum:Autumn Burke

The Open-Ended Questions

A. Please answer the following questions as elaborately as possible. (Remember, this part is only a requirement for your third to fifteenth character! However, if you want to have more input on where you character is sorted, then please answer #6!)

1) What would you consider to be your character's strengths, and your character's weaknesses? Elaborate on your answer.


 * strengths:


 * observant | empathetic | loving


 * weaknesses:


 * anxious | self-deprecating | isolated

2) What goals and objectives has your character set out in their life? Is it to be successful and rich? Is it to find happiness? Why?


 * Autumn honestly wants to find happiness. It's been abstract, impossible to know, and some way out of reach for a while now. Her siblings are all wonderful, and successful in her mind's view, and she honestly doesn't think she could measure up to any of them, doesn't know if she's enough. So she asks herself - why isn't she? And she'll write a list and avoid people so they can't contradict her. Constantly setting herself up to fail with too-high standards based on her view of her siblings, she can't seem to accept that this view she has of them is probably rose-tinted from the lack of time she spends around them.

3) What's their ideal way of spending a free day? Why so?


 * Alone, in her room, without interruptions. Autumn is a naturally introspective person, who prefers to stay unnoticed, and off of people's radars; that includes her family's, most of the time, because there's no bigger threat to the privacy of her internal turmoil than those who know her best. It's best when the room is dark, too - she does like the serenity and distance from others that being outside can bring, but if she's indoors, she needs the darkness. It's atmospheric. A silent room where she can sit and muse and rest her eyes if need be is the ideal place for her.

4) If your character could only keep 5 possessions, what would they be? Why?


 * The set of diaries she got for her eleventh birthday, and a pen. Because they're her only emotional outlet. They're truthfully all she thinks she could ever need, since she's shut most else out of her life.

5) What one thing would your character change about the wizarding society? Why?


 * Probably how hard it is for her to stay unnoticed. For every charm there is to hide herself, there's another one to reveal her. All of these charms and potions that simulate emotions that aren't real; she wishes she could just cast a cheering charm on herself every day, but she knows that this would be fake and she'd feel even worse when she comes off the emotional high. The higher I get, the lower I'll sink. I can't drown my demons, they know how to swim.

6) What house does your character want to be in? What house does your character not want to be in? Why?
 * Autumn tried not to be selective when it comes to a house. At the end of the day it's pointless and doesn't matter. But there was always a desire in Autumn's heart to be in Slytherin like her big brother Dexter, to do something to make someone proud, she thought, for a change. But she always knew that she wasn't ambitious enough, and had too big of a heart for the house of the serpents. One of the many times she wishes she could just change herself - make herself better, someone her family (and herself) can be really proud of.

The Sorting Quiz

B. Select the option that best fits your character. (Remember, this part is a requirement for every character you make! Please bold the answers from an IC Point of View, and mark in italics the answers from the OOC Point of View.)

1) Which type of spell is most useful?


 * A. A Complex Spell


 * B. A Spell Of Control


 * C. A Combat Spell


 * D. A Healing Spell

2) What is most important to you?


 * A. Grades.


 * B. Getting your way.


 * C. Life.


 * D. Friends and family.

3) What would you do if a teacher caught you cheating?


 * A. I'm the person people cheat off of.


 * B. I wouldn't get caught; I'm too slick.


 * C. I would deny the accusation until the teacher gives up.


 * D. I would 'fess up, apologize, and accept the consequences.

4) What matters most to your character?


 * A. Wisdom


 * B. Reputation


 * C. Success


 * D. Friendship

5) What's the best way to get things done?


 * A. Putting together a qualified team and completing the task efficiently.


 * B. Trick someone else into doing the work for you.


 * C. Get some friends together and lead them in the task.


 * D. The right way, no matter how long it takes.

The Character's Background

1) Give a description of your character's personality. Are you noble or sneaky? Arrogant or Humble? Anything about your character that might help the Sorting Hat decide. (Don't worry, you can copy this onto your character page later!) (Remember, personality must be at least one paragraph long for the first two characters, two paragraphs long for the third to eighth characters, and three paragraphs long for the ninth to fifteenth!)


 * Autumn is a girl in constant pursuit of something she might call happiness. It's been abstract, impossible to know, and some way out of reach for a while now. Her siblings are all wonderful, and successful in her mind's view, and she honestly doesn't think she could measure up to any of them, doesn't know if she's enough. So she asks herself - why isn't she? And she'll write a list and avoid people so they can't contradict her. Constantly setting herself up to fail with too-high standards based on her view of her siblings, she can't seem to accept that this view she has of them is probably rose-tinted from the lack of time she spends around them.


 * This is because she spends most of her time alone. Autumn is a naturally introspective person, who prefers to stay unnoticed, and off of people's radars; that includes her family's, most of the time, because there's no bigger threat to the privacy of her internal turmoil than those who know her best. It's best when the room is dark, too - she does like the serenity and distance from others that being outside can bring, but if she's indoors, she needs the darkness. It's atmospheric. A silent room where she can sit and muse and rest her eyes if need be is the ideal place for her. There's this natural drive in her to make things better for people, but she's come to believe that the best way to make things better for those around her is for her to not be a part of that.


 * She finds it hard to talk to new people, because she feels they have better things to do. Most of the time, she's too lost in her own deliberations of what people might be thinking about her to even consider it. If people laugh, she's convinced it's something she said or did wrong. Her world's disorganised, messy, and it fits the inside of her head. Under pressure she quakes and crumbles and tries to repress her emotions firmly inside her so that people don't notice. Autumn is not at all inclined to being pitied and she herself doesn't even want to think she needs help from other people - if people do pity her, they're likely to get a disgruntled or even angry response from a place she's been living in for months at a time.


 * Autumn is stuck in this belief that she isn't good enough for her family, or good enough even for herself. The book smarts she does have are from poems and philosophies, sciences, and words on paper that might make a book, but they aren't smarts for lessons that will help her get a job or anything useful. She's too socially anxious to ever have anything that could be considered street smarts. She's empathetic but she can't take on other people's problems on top of her own (that doesn't stop her doing it anyway and getting herself into deeper water). Eventually, though, she'll get to this stage where she can't bear anymore and lash out in an attempt to get people to leave her be. She doesn't mean any of what she says, not ever, but if it works then she supposes she can't complain. Reserved, self-conscious, and secretive, she can be very difficult to get to know, mostly because she feels like she could be misunderstood.


 * These lashings-out can be unadulterated and almost sheer rage, revealing all the bitterness she has felt about herself and about others that she has restrained for so long and only written down in the dark. Her facade might be bright, warm, open, okay - but she really isn't. She wishes she could change that.

2) Write about the history of your character. How did they grow up? Is there an incident that made them the way they are? etc. (Again, you can copy this onto your character page later!) (Remember, history must at least be two paragraphs long for the first two characters, three paragraphs long for the third to eighth character, and four paragraphs long for the ninth to fifteenth character!)


 * Autumn Burke has, by her own account, been a burden since birth. Being born two months early, she was feeble, and a severe case of pneumonia kept her and her parents in the hospital for several months on end. Four, precisely, before she was allowed to come home. The circumstances of her birth had separated the Burke family - her brothers resented her and never wanted to interact with her for a year or so - and this is a fact that has stuck with Autumn ever since it was brought up as a joke around the dinner table for the first time when she was younger. She's never told them that she took this quite as much to heart as she has, but it's partly why she's so reserved - she doesn't want to be the one ruining things for other people.


 * They warmed to her soon enough, sure, but she was far quieter than they were even as a young child. As she grew up it was clear she was less inclined to extroversion and more to a quiet, calm, lifestyle. This strained her relationship with her brothers once more, who were much more outdoorsy and unwilling to wait inside for their less excitable sister. She loves them, she does, more than anything. And when they come looking for her she works quick and fast to put her facade up, seem happy and bright like they want her to. Because they deserve that. But she can't bring herself to seek them out alone. She's scared of people noticing how painfully shy, and worried she is about her self-identity. Does she even have one? Does she even want one? What if it's wrong?


 * Even her first magical sign was almost too little, too late. Her family were convinced she was a squib. It was very telling of the sort of person she would become. When she was nine, she finally manifested her magic. Turning invisible when she didn't want to be seen, quite often. While she loves her brothers and their pride there was valued, she can't help but think they hoped for something more excitable. Constantly talking isn't necessarily communicating.


 * Her first year at Hogwarts was uninspiring. She made some friends on the basis of facade, and the kind of smarts she did have would have applied themselves better to Muggle schooling than to Hogwarts itself. She could never help but want to disappear. Neither did she have the same quidditch talent nor the social life of her siblings. It was never the adventure her parents had promised her it would be, but Autumn's gotten used to disappointing others and herself alike. 

3) Write about your character's appearance. What do they look like? Are you planning on using a certain model for your character? If you already have a picture in mind, you can put it here!


 * Her FC is the British singer, Birdy.

4) Is your character a Pure-Blood, Half-Blood or Muggle-Born? Do you have any notable magical relations? (Remember, you cannot be related to important Harry Potter characters!)


 * Half-Blood

5) Does your character have any special magical abilities? Or special abilities in general (photographic memory, etc.)? Is he or she of a different magical race, such as Veela, Vampire, Werewolf or the like? Part or half of that magical race counts! (Remember, you cannot have a character with special abilities/of a different magical race as one of your first two characters!)


 * Nope

6) What year is your character in?
 * Second

OOC Questions

C. These do not affect what house you're sorted to, but everybody must answer them!

1) Is this your first character?


 * A. This is my first character.


 * B. No, this is not my first character.

2) If your answer to the previous question is B, how many characters do you have? How many of them are "exotic" (of a different magical race/have a special ability)?
 * 12/4