P L A Y E R;
NAME: Yubsie
AGE: 31
PLAYER JOURNAL:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
yubsie
TIMEZONE: Atlantic
CONTACT:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
yubsie
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: Wash, Jaina Solo
C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: Minerva McGonagall
CANON: Harry Potter
POINT IN CANON: After Deathly Hallows
AGE: 63 (Maybe. Rowling gave her age as “a sprightly seventy” but later information gave a birth year of 1935. Basically, JKR is bad at math. In other news, the only way there are a thousand students at Hogwarts is if 700 are in Hufflepuff.)
APPEARANCE: Minerva McGonagall in all her Maggie Smith glory
CANON HISTORY: Have a wiki
CANON PERSONALITY: Minerva McGonagall is the sort of teacher you don't appreciate having initially. While she does not tolerate nonsense, there is an underlying kindness to her. Her standards are high but they are also fair.
Minerva cares deeply about her students. She is firm with them out of a desire for them to actually learn and succeed in life. In turn she expects them to take their education seriously. However, in times of trouble when her students require emotional support, she becomes much gentler. Unlike some heads of house, she treats all her students equally, offering praise to Slytherins and deducting points from Gryffindor. This equality does not extend to the Quidditch pitch, where she loves to see Slytherin get trounced. She's still very passionate about the sport even with her playing days long behind her. See: Going to great lengths to get and keep Harry on the team when she realized he would make a spectacular Seeker.
As the head of Gryffindor House, Minerva is naturally very courageous and shows great distaste for cowardice. Unlike younger Gryffindors, this is tempered by the good sense to not go charging in before assessing a situation appropriately... most of the time. There is a difference between bravery and sheer impulsiveness even if there doesn't always seem to be among teenagers. However, when those she is particularly close to are threatened she sometimes indulges in the stereotypical Gryffindor behaviour and needs to be reminded of her priorities.
In addition to the more danger related courage, Minerva is never afraid to speak her mind. She has strong opinions and will share them with rather sharp words. She is not afraid to be unconventional. Notably, she is enough of a feminist to have kept her own name upon marriage, which appears to be rather uncommon in wizarding society.
In a crisis, Minerva is quick to take charge in the absence of anyone she would naturally defer to. She acts rapidly to use everyone's skills in a manner that is mostly likely to bring everyone through the situation unharmed. She has repeatedly risen to the occasion of defending the school from Death Eater threat because Hogwarts has a serious problem.
Minerva is also very intelligent, to the point that it took the Sorting Hat over five minutes to decide between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. She has always sought to increase her knowledge, particularly of Transfiguration. She is a rare case of learning to become an Animagus for the sole purpose of seeing if she could learn some very tricky transfiguration rather than for the sneaking potential. She gets excited to try a new spell. Like many magical specialists, she considers her preferred branch of magic to be the most elegant and complex, though she does appreciate most other magical disciplines. She encourages her students to pursue their own strengths, even if they don't lie in transfiguration. A notable exception to this is the fuzzy Divination, partly due to the extreme rarity of true Seers.
Her ability to appreciate other branches of magic even if they aren't the one she is devoted to is likely a contributing factor in her being on friendly terms with the majority of the Hogwarts staff. Being very loyal to Dumbledore, she trusts his judgement in the selection of staff and has great respect for their professional capabilities. She even feels sympathy for Trewlawney, even if she does not care at all for Divination. The one exception to her warm relations with staff is cases of obvious incompetence or evil such as Lockhart, Umbridge and the Carrows.
Minerva is not prone to dramatic outbursts of emotion. Her smiles are greatly treasured by students as they have to be well earned. And generally, she does the “not mad, just disappointed” thing that is so very much worse than yelling. Even extensive abuse from the Carrows was met with reserve. However, her composure is not absolute and she can become quite flustered when angered.
That said, Minerva does have a sense of humour. It does not particularly align with the Weasley twins, leaning more toward dry wit. However, she did indulge in the mass chaos during Umbridge's reign of terror, memorably telling Peeves that the chandelier unscrews the other way.
POINT OF DEPARTURE: N/A
ABILITIES: /muffled sobbing OKAY SO HARRY POTTER MAGIC. When The Simpsons made that “a wizard did it” joke, they were basically describing the HP magic system. Magic generally requires the use of a wand to channel magical energy. It is possible to use magic without a wand, but it allows for considerably less precision. Spells are generally spoken out loud with specific incantations, with silent spells being considered more advanced.
McGonagall's biggest strength is transfiguration, the school of magic devoted to transforming the form and appearance of things. This is a highly systematic and technical school of magic that absolutely requires a wand and is divided into four main branches. The first branch is transformation, which alters the target in some way. Larger targets are considerably more challenging than smaller ones. There does not appear to be restrictions on transfiguring living things into inanimate objects or vice versa, though one wonders why anyone would ever need to turn a rat into a water goblet. Vanishing is the branch which consists of removing things from existence, which becomes more difficult for more complex organisms. (This may need to get power capped to the same limits as extraliminal transience?) Conjuration is the art of calling things into being from thin air, though anything summoned in this manner will not last very long. It is impossible to conjure food. The most challenging form of transfiguration is any transfiguration performed on humans. The Animagus spell, transforming oneself into an animal while retaining human intelligence, is the most difficult part of this branch. Minerva learned this just to see if she could and has an Animagus form of a tabby cat.
Minerva is also quite competent in charms, which focus on changing what things do rather than their nature. Charms allow more room for creativity and embellishment than transfiguration. Unfortunately, they also are the area that falls most under the “whatever Rowling thought would be cool”. Charms can lock and unlock doors, levitate objects, summon objects to the caster, prevent theft, summon the traditional (rather than periodic table) elements, conceal objects or locations, alter memories, clean, repair... essentially charms are used for just about everything. Of particular note is the apparition charm, which is an advanced spell restricted to adults that allows the user to teleport anywhere that has not been charmed against the possibility. Obviously this will need to be powercapped and replaced with some liminal skills (Probably stationary portals and Teleportation I).
As a member of the Order of the Phoenix, McGonagall is by necessity highly adept at defending against the Dark Arts. She is also a highly accomplished duelist, which largely involves combat focused charms. She has the basic knowledge of herbology, potion making and magical creatures that can be expected of any Hogwarts alum but is not terribly noteworthy in these areas as she is in Transfiguration. Finally, she has a rather formidable constitution, though this does come with a “for a witch of her age” condition.
INVENTORY; Emerald robes, pointy hat, wand, square spectacles
ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW?
S A M P L E S;
ACTIONSPAM SAMPLE: The Trumps seem to have collected quite a number of school aged children among the Travellers. We don't have any control over whether they send us to worlds that have appropriate educational facilities, and they seem to have a preference for worlds that lack them.
[The disapproval comes across pretty strongly when it comes to that realization]
But we do have some manner of control over what happens when we're in Liminal Space between those Jaunts. As adults, we have certain responsibilities. There are more than enough of us to ensure that the children's education is able to continue while they're Travelling. I wouldn't have brought this up if I weren't willing to see to organization, but I'm looking for people willing to share their particular areas of expertise so we can set up classes.
PROSE SAMPLE: Test drive
NAME: Yubsie
AGE: 31
PLAYER JOURNAL:
yubsieTIMEZONE: Atlantic
CONTACT:
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: Wash, Jaina Solo
C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: Minerva McGonagall
CANON: Harry Potter
POINT IN CANON: After Deathly Hallows
AGE: 63 (Maybe. Rowling gave her age as “a sprightly seventy” but later information gave a birth year of 1935. Basically, JKR is bad at math. In other news, the only way there are a thousand students at Hogwarts is if 700 are in Hufflepuff.)
APPEARANCE: Minerva McGonagall in all her Maggie Smith glory
CANON HISTORY: Have a wiki
CANON PERSONALITY: Minerva McGonagall is the sort of teacher you don't appreciate having initially. While she does not tolerate nonsense, there is an underlying kindness to her. Her standards are high but they are also fair.
Minerva cares deeply about her students. She is firm with them out of a desire for them to actually learn and succeed in life. In turn she expects them to take their education seriously. However, in times of trouble when her students require emotional support, she becomes much gentler. Unlike some heads of house, she treats all her students equally, offering praise to Slytherins and deducting points from Gryffindor. This equality does not extend to the Quidditch pitch, where she loves to see Slytherin get trounced. She's still very passionate about the sport even with her playing days long behind her. See: Going to great lengths to get and keep Harry on the team when she realized he would make a spectacular Seeker.
As the head of Gryffindor House, Minerva is naturally very courageous and shows great distaste for cowardice. Unlike younger Gryffindors, this is tempered by the good sense to not go charging in before assessing a situation appropriately... most of the time. There is a difference between bravery and sheer impulsiveness even if there doesn't always seem to be among teenagers. However, when those she is particularly close to are threatened she sometimes indulges in the stereotypical Gryffindor behaviour and needs to be reminded of her priorities.
In addition to the more danger related courage, Minerva is never afraid to speak her mind. She has strong opinions and will share them with rather sharp words. She is not afraid to be unconventional. Notably, she is enough of a feminist to have kept her own name upon marriage, which appears to be rather uncommon in wizarding society.
In a crisis, Minerva is quick to take charge in the absence of anyone she would naturally defer to. She acts rapidly to use everyone's skills in a manner that is mostly likely to bring everyone through the situation unharmed. She has repeatedly risen to the occasion of defending the school from Death Eater threat because Hogwarts has a serious problem.
Minerva is also very intelligent, to the point that it took the Sorting Hat over five minutes to decide between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. She has always sought to increase her knowledge, particularly of Transfiguration. She is a rare case of learning to become an Animagus for the sole purpose of seeing if she could learn some very tricky transfiguration rather than for the sneaking potential. She gets excited to try a new spell. Like many magical specialists, she considers her preferred branch of magic to be the most elegant and complex, though she does appreciate most other magical disciplines. She encourages her students to pursue their own strengths, even if they don't lie in transfiguration. A notable exception to this is the fuzzy Divination, partly due to the extreme rarity of true Seers.
Her ability to appreciate other branches of magic even if they aren't the one she is devoted to is likely a contributing factor in her being on friendly terms with the majority of the Hogwarts staff. Being very loyal to Dumbledore, she trusts his judgement in the selection of staff and has great respect for their professional capabilities. She even feels sympathy for Trewlawney, even if she does not care at all for Divination. The one exception to her warm relations with staff is cases of obvious incompetence or evil such as Lockhart, Umbridge and the Carrows.
Minerva is not prone to dramatic outbursts of emotion. Her smiles are greatly treasured by students as they have to be well earned. And generally, she does the “not mad, just disappointed” thing that is so very much worse than yelling. Even extensive abuse from the Carrows was met with reserve. However, her composure is not absolute and she can become quite flustered when angered.
That said, Minerva does have a sense of humour. It does not particularly align with the Weasley twins, leaning more toward dry wit. However, she did indulge in the mass chaos during Umbridge's reign of terror, memorably telling Peeves that the chandelier unscrews the other way.
POINT OF DEPARTURE: N/A
ABILITIES: /muffled sobbing OKAY SO HARRY POTTER MAGIC. When The Simpsons made that “a wizard did it” joke, they were basically describing the HP magic system. Magic generally requires the use of a wand to channel magical energy. It is possible to use magic without a wand, but it allows for considerably less precision. Spells are generally spoken out loud with specific incantations, with silent spells being considered more advanced.
McGonagall's biggest strength is transfiguration, the school of magic devoted to transforming the form and appearance of things. This is a highly systematic and technical school of magic that absolutely requires a wand and is divided into four main branches. The first branch is transformation, which alters the target in some way. Larger targets are considerably more challenging than smaller ones. There does not appear to be restrictions on transfiguring living things into inanimate objects or vice versa, though one wonders why anyone would ever need to turn a rat into a water goblet. Vanishing is the branch which consists of removing things from existence, which becomes more difficult for more complex organisms. (This may need to get power capped to the same limits as extraliminal transience?) Conjuration is the art of calling things into being from thin air, though anything summoned in this manner will not last very long. It is impossible to conjure food. The most challenging form of transfiguration is any transfiguration performed on humans. The Animagus spell, transforming oneself into an animal while retaining human intelligence, is the most difficult part of this branch. Minerva learned this just to see if she could and has an Animagus form of a tabby cat.
Minerva is also quite competent in charms, which focus on changing what things do rather than their nature. Charms allow more room for creativity and embellishment than transfiguration. Unfortunately, they also are the area that falls most under the “whatever Rowling thought would be cool”. Charms can lock and unlock doors, levitate objects, summon objects to the caster, prevent theft, summon the traditional (rather than periodic table) elements, conceal objects or locations, alter memories, clean, repair... essentially charms are used for just about everything. Of particular note is the apparition charm, which is an advanced spell restricted to adults that allows the user to teleport anywhere that has not been charmed against the possibility. Obviously this will need to be powercapped and replaced with some liminal skills (Probably stationary portals and Teleportation I).
As a member of the Order of the Phoenix, McGonagall is by necessity highly adept at defending against the Dark Arts. She is also a highly accomplished duelist, which largely involves combat focused charms. She has the basic knowledge of herbology, potion making and magical creatures that can be expected of any Hogwarts alum but is not terribly noteworthy in these areas as she is in Transfiguration. Finally, she has a rather formidable constitution, though this does come with a “for a witch of her age” condition.
INVENTORY; Emerald robes, pointy hat, wand, square spectacles
ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW?
S A M P L E S;
ACTIONSPAM SAMPLE: The Trumps seem to have collected quite a number of school aged children among the Travellers. We don't have any control over whether they send us to worlds that have appropriate educational facilities, and they seem to have a preference for worlds that lack them.
[The disapproval comes across pretty strongly when it comes to that realization]
But we do have some manner of control over what happens when we're in Liminal Space between those Jaunts. As adults, we have certain responsibilities. There are more than enough of us to ensure that the children's education is able to continue while they're Travelling. I wouldn't have brought this up if I weren't willing to see to organization, but I'm looking for people willing to share their particular areas of expertise so we can set up classes.
PROSE SAMPLE: Test drive
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