H.H.H.

[harlemharley]

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{ A B O U T . Y O U }

Name: SKAR!
Gender: FEMME
Age: blankity blank blank
E-mail: you has
Twitter: blankity blank blank
Years of RPG Experience: idk
Other:

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{ Q U I C K . Q U I Z }

How did you find us?
What about ISS inspired you to join?
Do you have any suggestions for us?

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{ A B O U T . T H E . C H A R A C T E R }

Name: Harlem Harley Harlowe
Age: Sixteen
Gender: Female
Year: Fifth
Face Claim: Miranda Kerr

Canon or Original? Original

Facial Properties: Harlem has that heart-shaped face you don’t see around that often. Maybe it’s because of the wide set eyes, or their doe-like quality. Or maybe the cupid bow lips are what throw you off, or, you know, whatever. Maybe it’s the small chin or the cheekbones, but there’s something about Harlem’s face that doesn’t scream ‘normal’. It’s too child-like, too cute for someone her age. Then again, people are always saying how your physical condition is a reflection of your soul. And Harlem’s soul isn’t anything if not innocent. Maybe that’s why her blue eyes will always twinkle at you and how she’ll always let her lips split into a friendly grin when she spots you. She likes the feel of her hair brushing against her shoulders, which is why you’ll never see her with anything shorter than that and to be honest, her hair is the one thing she’s proud about. Always loose, almost never pulled back, it serves to enhance the innocent vibe you get from her, overall. Maybe it’s that, or maybe it’s the fact that she will never see you with anything akin to malice, does it matter? She looks like the type of girl you’d love to take home to meet your parents.

Physique: She’s got the genes of her mother, mostly. She was a model, after all. Not a really famous or widely recognized one, but you know, it definitely helped in her daughter’s physique. Tall and genuinely slim. Maybe she would even be referred to as petite, due to her measurements, but her height kind of kills the entire concept of petite, so she’s just a tall girl with small hands, small waist, small breasts and a gentle slope to her shoulders. She works out constantly, keeps on a diet constantly and has irregular sleeping habits, but it doesn't really show. She's got tanned skin, kept that way by the constant trips to her father's family in the Parisian estate.

Wand Type:
10”
Demiguise hair core
Inflexible
Spiraled shaft
Elm and Alder hybrid
Elm: Elm is a tree associated with communication, and many born in this sign share a love of language. They are voracious readers, erudite and eloquent, with the ability to express themselves in both a vivid and witty manner. Elm people are natural communicators and others may find themselves captivated by their tales and anecdotes. Many are excellent speakers with a natural ability to entertain and encourage others. Sometimes, however, their sense of humor can be sarcastic or cutting and others may take offence. [source]
Alder: Psychologically, the Alder is uncomplicated and will usually express any opinion quite openly. […]Physical Goal: To be aware of the unique quality in self and in others. To keep eyes open in order to see the unusual and to acknowledge what is seen in another, if at all possible. Mental Goal: To utilize something that was previously overlooked. Oracular skills are not easy to acknowledge and the mind is sometimes unwilling to deal with the intuitive part. [source
Wand Expertise: Transfiguration (from the elm) and Protection Charms and Counter Curses (from the alder).
Patronus: Kitten
Boggart: The dark

Personality:

self-aware
She’s perfectly aware of how annoying she can naturally be if you stick around her for long periods of time. See, she’s not the type of girl who can be quiet or still for long—it’s simply not in her nature. Now, she jokingly refers to it as her blonde gene, but it’s still irritating for people. She can talk and talk endlessly without ever running out of subjects because she has this knack of going off on tangents. Of course, when this happens and she notices it, she clams up immediately. Harlem is the type of girl who doesn’t like to annoy people, which is why she’s very reserved with what she says, her type of laughter, her thoughts, even, because there’s always this part of her that wonders about ‘what if there’s a Legilimens out there?’. She’s very conscious of what she says and what she does and tries to repress her natural instincts of giggling at every single little thing and her carefree attitude. However, despite her best efforts of trying to control it, the truth is that she cannot be held accountable for her personality if a person sticks around long enough to uncover the real disaster she’s underneath. Not that she’s really a disaster, but she sees herself as one. Simply put, she has a bit of a ditz inside of her. She’s naturally clumsy, see. She’s the kind of girl who’s picking up fragments of broken plates because it was her who tripped the china box, the one who’s always apologizing profusely because she stepped on someone, the kind of girl who, really, you want to keep face palming about.

selfless
However, Harlem is a very sweet girl if you give her the chance. She’s always there to support a friend, she’s the first one to help you out when you need it, even if you’re a complete stranger and because of that, she’s the first one to be taken advantage of in situations like that. She doesn’t even notice it, though. She lives in this pink-colored bubble that makes everything peachy keen. Naïve? Profoundly so. Trusting? But of course. Despite the many times her mother tried to ingrain it in her that life is not always as cute as her daughter thinks it is, Harlem made a decision early on in her life that this was the way she wanted to live. Maybe not consciously, but it was there in every single one of her actions. She’s selfless and takes what other people are feeling into consideration. Too much consideration. Other people will always be above her, they will always be first when it comes to things. In the end, she doesn’t matter, because all she lives for is to see other people being happy. It physically pains her when she can’t help someone who’s in need and dislikes it when there’s not a smile in the faces of the people who surround her.

self worthless
Harlem is cute. People throughout her life have constantly expressed this and she has always graciously accepted it with a smile and a blush and a ducking of her head as she exits the scene. However, there’s a very big distance between that and having her mind digest it and believe it instead of discarding it as junk. She’s tall, slim and pretty, but all Harlem sees in the mirror is a very average girl who could use some more makeup underneath her eye bags, a girl who could use a stricter diet and hair that wouldn’t die if it had just a touch more shine to it. She’s constantly trying to prove to herself and to others that she’s worth it, but it doesn’t amount to much when she can’t believe it herself. That’s why she’s always tripping over her own two feet, trying to serve others, to keep them happy because that’s the only way she knows how to keep people by her side. Her conscious thought is always telling her that people leave her every day and the only thing she can do to stop it is to do their every wish, be everything they need, despite of it going against her beliefs or her nature. She has been induced to situations she feels squirmy about, but goes through with them if only to keep her friends happy, to make them happy. She has strong morals, except she doesn’t. Because strong morals would imply having some kind of spine and that is something Harlem lacks. She is easily swayed by people with stronger personalities than her own and thus she never seems able to make up her own mind. She’s always changing her opinion, her statements and that makes her look bad a lot of the time. It looks as if she had previously lied about something, but the thing is that she simply changed her mind and she doesn’t believe it anymore. Harlem’s goal in life is to please everybody because that’s the only way people will ever love her.

self restraint
Harlem Harley Harlowe was brought up to repress her baser instincts, which means her super ego is obscenely developed and has the power to crush anything her id could come up with to jeopardize the life she has built around her. Don’t eat this, don’t eat that, don’t talk like that, sit up straight, don’t say that, don’t think that. The willpower Harlem shows in her own self would be impressive if it weren’t worth shit, because at the end of the day, it’s not her willpower who determines her actions, but the people who are with her. If she could apply that to every other aspect to her life, or maybe even repress her super ego itself, the results would be amazingly different. Harlem is used to biting her tongue and keeping her opinions to herself, which makes her a very poor public speaker. When she’s in front of a large audience, she knows that it is almost physically impossible to please everybody in the room because of the conflicting personalities and opinions and it makes her so nervous she stumbles over her own words and sometimes over her own feet.

self boycott
Harlem has a lot of admirable qualities. She would be a good leader if she had the guts because of her organizational skills. She’s a neat freak, likes to keep everything organized, likes for things to be squeaky clean, likes things to go just like that. She’s borderline OCD and suffers from an acute Elektra Complex, which manifests itself when all the guys Harlem has ever liked are a carbon copy of her father. She would be a good public speaker because she was brought up in household full of refinement. Her education was her parents’ priority and it shows, because she is a well-versed, cultured young woman, but Harlem is used to boycotting that. People don’t like know-it-alls, see? People have never liked the girl who always raises her hand first. People don’t like to feel dumber and more ignorant than their conversational partner. So Harlem stays shushed. She would be a healthy girl if she didn’t have such strange and scrambling habits. She’s used to eating three hearty meals a day, but she has too many friends who obsess over their own weight for her to be comfortable eating in front of them. They care more about working out than they do for eating. They care more for their late night thrashy sessions than they do about a healthy eight-hour sleep. REM cycle? What’s that. Harlem hasn’t had a taste of that in over five years. Harlem doesn’t believe in herself. She’s a pessimistic of the worst kind. If she’s involved in a project, she’s sure it’s bound to fail from the start. She mentality is such that it affects her and the outcomes of everything she is involved in, which only serves to reaffirm her belief that she’s not good for much.

self fear
She’s always been a bit jumpy. You would never commit the mistake of saying Harlem was brave. Much less courageous. Ever since she was little, she was afraid of the dark, afraid of the monsters inside her closet and afraid is all she’s ever been since. Afraid that her father will leave again. Afraid that her mother will decide she’s not worth it anymore, afraid of her family disintegrating, afraid of her friends hating her, afraid of what she’s capable of doing even if she has the ability to stop herself. Afraid. That’s all Harlem will ever amount to: fear.


Likes:
+ Jewelry
+ Gymnastics
+ Smiles
+ Practical jokes
+Laughing
+ Friends
+ Hearts
+ Valentine’s Day
+ Yule
+Cheerleading
+ Family
+ Scrapbooking
+ High heels
+ Romance novels
+ Boys
+ Dates
+ Coffee
+ Dogs
+ Shopping
+ Trinkets
+ Letters
+ Gifts
+ Stuffed animals
+ Glasses
+ Stairs
+ Summer
+Beach
+Bicycles
+Her dog, Pooh Bear
+Calligraphy
+Cartoons
+Hats
+Scarves
+Lotions
+Perfume
+Baths
+Shabby chic trend
+Mismatched socks

Dislikes:
– Public speaking
– Being mocked
– Fights
– Cigarette smoke
– Being put on the spotlight
– Not being invited to parties
– Being single
– Idiots
– Studying
– Professor Binns
– Walking in front/through a large group of people. Especially boys.
– Feeling ugly
– Breaking out
– Bad haircuts
– Chipped nail polish
– Feeling fat
– Feeling ugly
– Bad dates
– Isolation
– Being still for long periods of time
– Cats
–Being sick
–Ink stains
–Cheesy lines
–Sad love songs
–Not getting a joke
–Cold feet
–Piranhas
–Nurse shoes


History:
There comes a time in a woman’s life when it becomes clear she needs to get married. That, or risk losing her career just because she ‘ran out of steam’. The answer is obvious as to which is the most gracious of them all. So yes, maybe Merlina sought out a husband because her year as a model was over. Yes, a year. That was enough to make her believe that she was born to be a star. However, contracts were scarce and it was either that, or become pregnant, have a “who’s the father” war in the tabloids and go out with a bang. That way, she would ensure she stayed in people’s minds longer than she would have if she’d only been just a “one time thing”. She did plan on having a blast with it, though. He had to be handsome. Scratch that. Make him drop-dead gorgeous. Yes. And charming. And somebody who was in the public eye, constantly. That way, Merlina would always be in the spotlight, by his side. She was born to shine, see. If he was married, even better. Challenges were always her thing. Besides, getting the title of ‘homewrecker’ would be awesome. Mainly because people would hate her, other people would consider her a sex symbol for having enough appeal to draw that specific man away from that specific bombshell. It was thrilling to be the other woman. The idea of it appealed to Merlina, who’s morals were loose and nonexistent. Yes, she had it all planned out in her mind. She also had her victim in mind. It would be easy, she deduced. The guy had a reputation for being a bit loose in the past. Getting married had apparently ‘tamed’ him, but it was Merlina’s belief that a tiger could never trade his stripes for anything in the entire world.

Not even for a pair of legs like his current wife’s.

But that was okay, because while she planned on luring him away, she also planned on not letting any other woman do the same thing to her by various and diverse techniques. She was going to be endgame for Thomas Flamel. There was no question about that. He had his father and mother’s wealth to account for, despite them still being very much alive and he was always in the spotlight. Not necessarily portrayed in a positive manner, but that was the last of Merlina’s concerned. She was going to have a baby with him, get him to tie the knot and die together. Because, nobody left Merlina Cochran. There were going to be contracts and…

It worked.

It was a night in Paris when Merlina attended one of the last parties she was able to pull an invite for and Thomas happened to be the co-host, along with his current, beautiful wife Agnes. However, the refined woman was no match for Merlina’s shine and allure. After a couple of doctored drinks that she and Thomas downed, it was a piece of cake. For Merlin’s sake, she didn’t roofie him. Just gave him more alcohol than he thought he was consuming. Doubled his imbibing, see. It all went downhill for his marriage from there and uphill for Merlina. She discovered she was pregnant one month after, got him to have a divorce by leaking it to the press, had to “quit her career to devote herself to her child” and had him marry her. Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel happened to be quite respectable wizards who had a standing to uphold and they were not going to allow their only son to have bastards running around just like that. It was just Merlina’s luck that Agnes hadn’t had a baby, so this was going to be Thomas’ first-born. Believe it or not, that type of thing still held some type of interest to the old-fashioned prick.

So nine months later, on a beautiful March night, Harlem Harley Harlowe was born. At the time of her birth, her parents were in one of their numerous tiffs and Merlina decided that she was not going to bear her father’s name because he didn’t deserve to participate in their daughter’s life. Or something like that. Once they got over their petty argument, Thomas filed for her daughter’s named to be officially changed, but Merlina never got around to signing the papers. Said papers, which, to this day, are still used as a bargaining chip in their ongoing war zone. They might live together, might go out together, might be caught together, but they’re not the blissfully married couple they all pretend to be. Harlem grew accustomed to being shipped to her grandparents’ more often than not, grew used to having her parents sleep in separate rooms, hear them have passionate quarrels and then be absolutely happy with each other the next day. Merlina was never quite stable in the upstairs department, officially diagnosed with HPD, but it doesn’t matter, because that’s the way it always is, always has been, always will be. Thomas can’t leave her because of the co-dependent relationship they have developed. Even if that didn’t exist, there are still magically binding documents that ensure him staying with her until one or both of them die.

As far as her raising, Harlem was brought up to be a perfectly proper young lady. Not because of their money, or their heritage, but rather because her grandparents (paternal) believe that education and your character is the only thing that you have in the real world, the only thing you can depend on to fend for yourself, so they made sure that their darling, beloved granddaughter had the best education possible since her early years. At five, she was already stumbling through words in books, coddled by her father and grandparents and sometimes even her mother. That is, when she wasn’t in her histrionically addled world. If she’d lived with her grandparents all the time, Harlem wouldn’t be the insecure girl she currently is. Instead, she lived with her parents and it did things to her mind that not many people can understand. The need to keep them close to her at all times comes from the many times they have threatened to leave, used it as a bargaining chip—used her and disgraced her, all the times she’s been reduced to nothing but a trading tool. It’s tiresome and cumbersome and unhealthy, but Harlem needs her parents. Her father more than anything and she needs for them to approve of her, which will never happen, because as far as Merlina is concerned, her daughter isn’t her daughter but just competition for Thomas’ affections.


Sample Post:

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{ C O N T R A C T }

I solemnly swear that I, SKAR, have read the rules, understand clearly what my responsibilities are now that I am joining ISS, and will abide by these standards set by the staff.

[Professor Albus Dumbledore]

accepted !