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Post by professorpumpkin56 on Dec 5, 2012 21:17:17 GMT -6
Profile
Full name: Moira Jeanine Tang
Nicknames: Moy, Jean; her family has called her Moy since her 6-year-old cousins, who couldn’t pronounce her name when they were little, began using it. However, she prefers to go by Jean, since she doesn’t like the name Moira and thinks that Jeanine is too plain; Jean is much more edgy, which she thinks suits her personality better.
Age: 15
Place of birth: Houston, Texas
Birthday: September 7th
Bloodtype: Muggleborn
Sexuality: Straight
House/year: Gryffindor, year 5
Affiliation: Good
Wand: Oak, dragon heartstring, 11 ½ inches, slightly springy
Hair: Moira has neatly combed, frequently-washed black hair (which she never dyes) styled in a blunt pixie-cut. Her bangs sweep across the left side of her face, and meet her eyebrows. She normally wears a hair band, although it doesn’t sweep her hair back; she just likes the way it looks.
Eyes: Moira’s eyes are big and brown, framed by short eyelashes. Her irises are often described as mesmerizing, because while their outer rims are so dark they’re almost black, their colour follows a gradient inwards, getting lighter and lighter until they reach a warm, almost hazel colour on their innermost rim.
Body type: Moira is 5 feet 7 inches tall, and has a fairly large chest (size 36C), although the rest of her is straight-up-and-down. She’s fairly slender, although would insist that she is simply average. Her skin is slightly tanned, and she has size 8 feet.
Unique feature: Her eyes are pretty unique, but she also has ears which are slightly pointed. She doesn’t mind that, though, so she cuts her hair short rather than hiding her ears behind long locks.
Animagus: Moira doesn’t know what animagus she is, and doubts she even has one, but if you asked her she’d probably say she was a mastiff or some other form of big dog.
Face Claim: She’s fairly unique, but has been told she kind of resembles a young Lucy Liu.
Extra details: Usually wears dark clothing; a standard uniform for her is dark-wash skinny jeans, a black t-shirt with bright designs on it, and a pastel-coloured sweater, which is more to please her aunt than anything. Her favourite shoes are a pair of red sneakers, with Velcro straps instead of laces; she isn’t particularly dextrous. Her fingernails are usually cut down to the quick, which her aunt does for her because she’s a nail-biter; her aunt figures that if she doesn’t have nails to bite, she can’t feed in to the habit. Her skin isn’t particularly bad, although she does have a tendency to get acne right under her bangs.
Patronus: Moira’s best memory is also her earliest. In it, she is 5 years old. It’s father’s day, and she and her family have gone for a picnic. While she and her father are eating, a blue-and-purple-winged butterfly floats by. Her father encourages her to follow it, and they chase it down a little hill, where they discover a small flowerbed tended by the city gardening council. All around the flowerbed, there are butterflies of every shape and colour. She and her father played with the butterflies, chasing them and trying to catch one, all day, and her father deemed it their “special spot”. From then on, they had picnics there every week, and the magic never seemed to wear off. This is her favourite memory because her father left around a year later after cracking under the strain of having a witch for a child. As long as she had the butterfly garden, however, she had the hope that they still had a special connection. The memory of the butterfly garden has really influenced Moira’s patronus. Her patronus is a butterfly, because she still believes her father will come back one day, having accepted her for who she is. The butterfly has become synonymous with her father, who she still views as her protector.
Dementor: Moira’s worst memory is waking up on one of her designated “picnic days” and going to her parents’ room, only to discover that her father wasn’t there. She searched all around the house, but still couldn’t find him. Thinking that he had left without her, she tried to leave the house and go to the park to catch up with him, despite the fact that she didn’t actually know the way. Luckily, her mother, who had known that her husband left in the middle of the night, stopped Moira before the little girl had left. However, because she was so deeply hurt by her husband’s leaving, and realized that it was Moira’s fault he had left, she took out her anger on her daughter, beating her until Moira lost control. Moira’s magic took over, and blasted her mother against a wall so hard that the woman lost consciousness. The pain, panic, and betrayal she felt that day have continued to haunt Moira; for example, she hesitates to make friends because she fears that they, too, will blame her for something she can’t control, and will leave her and hate her.
Mirror of Erised: If Moira looked in the mirror of Erised, she would see her mother and father posing for a portrait with her, their arms around her. They are all laughing and smiling, and as the camera snaps they lean down and kiss her on the cheeks. It is clear that her parents love one another.
Boggart: Moira’s deepest fear is of heights. This is because she feels she has no control up high; Moira likes to know exactly what is going on with herself, and to feel as if she can control her environment, but loses that sense of control when she is up high. When a boggart attacks her, it makes her feel as if she is levitating up, and forms the sky out of the ceiling. When she uses the ridikkulus charm, it drops her and morphs into a giant bouncy-castle.
Amortentia: To Moira, the best smells in the world are cinnamon, sugar, and India ink. She loves the smells of cinnamon and sugar because she has a sweet-tooth, and associates sweetness (especially cinnamon rolls, her favourite treat) with happiness and her family, which she often bakes with. She also loves the smell of India ink, just because “It reeks of intelligence and creativity!”, as she’ll often quip.
Strengths: Moira’s strengths include her ability to make it look like she’s not hurt, her imagination, her extraversion, her ability to recognize patterns, and her strong sense of discipline. Her ability to make it look like she’s not hurt means that when someone insults her, she can convincingly brush it off, even if it does actually hurt her feelings. She will always stand up again after being beaten down, either physically or verbally, which intimidates people and discourages them from picking on her, since it appears as if they won’t actually have an effect on her. Her imagination is also a strength because when she is hurt, she can recede into a perfect world inside her head and effectively make herself feel better. Her imagination also makes her a fun person to talk to, and means that she can see connections where others can’t. This imagination lends itself to her two next strengths, her extraversion and her ability to recognize patterns. Her extraversion is a strength because she can build strong networks, even if it takes a little time for her to trust people, and people easily trust her. Her ability to recognize patterns is a strength especially when concerning magic because she can easily link charms, predict how to make potions, excel in divinity, and predict how to defend herself against dark magic based on patterns she’s found in these areas; this makes up for her academic weaknesses. Lastly, her discipline is a strength because it contributes to everything she does; she has the discipline to work hard and constantly better even areas of strength. Her discipline allows her not to get too cocky.
Weaknesses: Moira’s weaknesses include her mistrust of people, dyslexia, low self-esteem (even though she won’t show it), tendency to get jealous, and tendency to be so overly opinionated that she will not listen to any other points of view. Moira is very mistrustful of people, due to her worst memory, which means that even though she’s good at making friends, she can never really bring herself to fully trust them. This builds paranoia within her, especially since she’s imaginative with her mistrust. She also has dyslexia. This is a weakness for school subjects, and a point of insecurity for her; she considers herself to be a bad witch because she cannot read her textbooks, meaning she can’t do as well in class as some of her peers. Her insecurities often mean that Moira gets jealous very easily; this further adds to her mistrust of people, and has a tendency to close her mind off from help. For example, if another student offers to help her with her homework, she will say no because she is jealous of their ability to complete homework and will think that they’re making fun of her. Moira’s also very opinionated, due to her low self-esteem; her opinions and values are, in her opinion, the only thing she’s got. This means that she can be a little closed-minded sometimes, sticking too much to what she thinks she knows. Of course, it goes without saying that her greatest weakness of all is her low self-esteem. Even though she doesn’t let it show, and works hard to make up the difference, she can’t really reach her full potential because she’s convinced she’s no good. Her self-loathing also takes a physical toll; she’s often very tired because she can’t sleep at night, being kept awake by bad thoughts.
Hobbies/quirks/whims/habits: Moira has played the violin since she was 9 years old, and adores it. She considers it her favourite hobby and practices even when she isn’t holding a violin by moving her fingers absent-mindedly as if they’re gliding along strings. She also likes quidditch. However, since her fear of heights prevents her from playing or going to watch the sport, she satisfies herself with following it in the news. Her favourite team is Ireland. Some of her habits include nail-biting, which her aunt is currently trying to make her quit, and chewing the inside of her cheek. These started out as nervous habits she adopted when she moved to London shortly after her father left, and she now does them consistently. Some of her quirks include winking at first-years, which she finds funny since it makes them incredibly uncomfortable, and pointing and snapping at something she sees that she likes, on the occasion that she gets overexcited (which she tries not to let happen to often). She likes smelling and touching new things, because she loves feeling stimulated by the different senses. She can get a little hot under the collar sometimes, especially when her beliefs are challenged. It’s hard to argue with her, but she enjoys debating all the same. She feels compelled to always behave and appear tough—this is probably a defense mechanism put in place to guard her insecurities.
Likes: Moira likes music, especially muggle classical music from the romantic era. Her favourite subjects at school include divination, potions, and muggle studies, because divination requires imagination, potions makes her feel powerful, and muggle studies allows her to throwback to her upbringing by two muggle parents. She’s an avid reader of The Daily Prophet, and an even more avid debater of the things she reads. She also has a secret love for muggle comic books, especially Batman; she’s a fan of all things dark. She also has a sweet-tooth (especially when it comes to butterbeer), although she doesn’t like people to know about it since she thinks it makes her look less tough.
Dislikes: Moira dislikes swimming, because she doesn’t like the smell of chlorine or the feeling of being suspended (once again emulating the feeling of having no control). She also dislikes citrus fruits, because she can’t stand their acidity. She doesn’t like rune studies or anything that has a lot of reading in general, because that forces her to admit that she struggles with it. She dislikes menial labour, because she thinks it’s boring, but engages in it quite frequently partly out of necessity and partly because she views it as a vehicle to recede into her imagination. She doesn’t dislike many people, but if she does dislike you, she’ll let you know it. Her worst dislike, however, is of the colour purple. She has never known why, since purple is a colour in connection with the butterfly of her favourite memory, but she views it as an exceptionally ugly colour. Perhaps this is where the association of her parents’ betrayal comes in.
Temperament/allegiance: Generally, anything that Moira views as “injust” sets her off. She doesn’t like seeing people bullied, and does not like shows of discrimination against others; it reminds her too much of how she was a “freak” in her childhood. She also hates it when people disagree with her. On the other hand, Moira becomes really happy around her friends or when she’s playing the violin. When she succeeds, especially at something difficult, she becomes very, very happy and rewards herself with sweets, which extend her feeling of happiness. She also, of course, likes it when people who initially disagree with her come to agree; she views this as a victory as well as a validation of her opinion.
General personality: Moira is a proud, serious person who is easily inspired and very passionate about causes that pique her interest. She’s got a very certain sense of who she is—she doesn’t waiver in her interests much. That being said, she still prefers the new as opposed to the routine, within reason. She likes to go to new vacation spots or to eat lunch in a new spot each day, for example, but doesn’t like new friends. This doesn’t mean she doesn’t like making them—she’s quite sociable—but it takes her a while to actually like them and trust them. She doesn’t forget easily, as much as she tries, which is why past mistakes or even events she couldn’t control tend to haunt her, affecting her self-esteem, which is quite low. She knows this about herself, though, and wants to change it. She tries her best at taking that initiative, but doesn’t really know how to make the small changes within herself that make the most impact. She is usually someone that people tend to flock towards, because she is a good leader who has an outside appearance of infallibility and strength. However, if she doesn’t like you, she makes it known. This contributes to her “tough girl” image, which, while reflecting some of her personality (she really does like ‘punk’-style clothes), is often exploited as a method of defense. Moira, when excited, can be quite silly, often pulling little pranks or cracking jokes in moments of happiness. In terms of what makes her laugh, even though she’s actually quite easily embarrassed, she does have quite a dirty sense of humour. This means that she’ll often turn red while giggling like a little kid!
Nationality: Moira’s grandparents on her mothers’ side came to Texas from China just after her mother was born. Her father came from Taiwan when he was 25. Moira was born in America, but is of Chinese-Taiwanese origin.
Home town/current residence: Moira was born in Houston, Texas. When she was 4, her parents moved to Dallas for a period of time to accommodate a temporary work position of her mother’s, before moving back to Houston. When she was 6, after her father left and she threw her mother against a wall, she was given away to her aunt. Her aunt, also a muggle, met a wizard when she went to study in London and married him, bearing two magical children, so she knew plenty about raising a witch. Thus, Moira moved to London with them, to a suburb near Diagon Alley with a high population of wizarding families.
Financial status: Her family is strictly middle-class. Her mother and father, an engineer and a professor, were upper-middle class. The family she now lives with, her aunt, uncle, and cousins, are lower-middle class. Her aunt is a nurse, and her uncle works in the Ministry’s department for control of magical creatures.
Family relations: Moira’s grandparents are all dead, except for her uncle’s mother, who she now considers to be her grandma even though her uncle married into the family. He and his mother are of Irish, pureblood descent. Her uncle, James Whittaker, is 35 and works for the Ministry of magic. His mother, Catherine Whittaker (nee McAllister), is 74 and retired, since she didn’t go back to work after James was grown. Moira’s mother was called An-Jing Li, and her father was named Ken Tang. However, due to her parents’ abandonment, Moira lives with her aunt, Stephanie Li, and her uncle, James Whittaker. Stephanie is 33. Moira has two cousins, Ivy and Jason Whittaker-Li, who are 8 and 11, respectively. Jason is in Ravenclaw in his first year at Hogwarts. Moira met her best friend, Lily Tomlinson, when she moved in with Stephanie and James. Lily was her next door neighbour, and is the same age as Moira, but is also in Ravenclaw.
Relationship: Moira’s single, and she wouldn’t mind mingling, but isn’t actively looking for anyone. If the right person comes along, she will chase after them.
Pets: Moira has a silver tomcat named Dodge.
General history: An-Jing and Ken met each other at the University of Texas when they were 27. An-Jing was completing her dissertation on astrophysics, and Ken was hired as part of her team to conduct the research. They spent a lot of time together, Ken being the lead engineer and An-Jing being the director of the project. One thing led to another, and Ken proposed on the same day that An-Jing earned her doctorate a year later. They bought an apartment in Texas and married abroad in Beijing. Soon enough, they were pregnant with their first child, a boy. They couldn’t have been more excited, until An-Jing went into labour 4 months early. Kevin Tang was born with severe heart complications, and died ten hours later. Devastated, the couple waited a year before trying again. This time, they gave birth to a wonderful, healthy girl. Moira Jeanine Tang was the answer to their prayers, never crying, sleeping through the night—at times, she was too perfect. Indeed, soon magic was revealed to be involved. Moira would move toys around, levitating them, open and close blinds without touching them, and once even completely changed the colour of the paint on her nursery walls! Her parents were faced with the difficult position of raising a magical child. Luckily, An-Jing’s own sister, Sophia, entered into a relationship with a wizard named James Whittaker when Moira was 4. James and Sophia tried to help An-Jing and Ken raise their little witch, and for a while succeeded—the family progressed to a teetering sort of peace, balancing oddity with normalcy and avoiding major incidents. Yet behind closed doors Moira’s magic took a toll on her parents’ marriage. They worried. They blamed each other. They fought. It was too much for Ken, who left his family when Moira was 6. Upon discovering the abandonment, which took place without so much as a note, An-Jing snapped. She directed her anger towards Moira, beating her so badly that Moira’s magic took over, slamming the woman into a wall so hard that An-Jing had to be hospitalized. James was, of course, notified by a magic-monitoring organization, and An-Jing consented to giving her brother-in-law custody over Moira. Moira had become a relatively broken child by then, but trusted James because she knew that he was the same as her. Gradually, with lots of love, Moira grew to love Sophia and James. She moved to London with them, where she lived in a suburb of mostly magical families. There, though she was healing, she was often the victim of bullying, residues of anti-muggle sentiments. As well as suffering taunts of “your parents didn’t love you!”, Moira was pinned with the new label of “mudblood”. This took a toll on her self-esteem, but also gave her strength; she grew a thick skin and a disciplined, perseverant attitude. Her bright, imaginative spirit wasn’t affected, thanks in part to the encouragement of her best friend and next-door-neighbour Lily Tomlinson. They currently go to Hogwarts together, but are in different houses—Lily is in Ravenclaw. That being said, they’ve managed to maintain their friendship, bonding especially through their shared passions for music; they’re both advanced violinists. Currently, Moira is a 5th year Gryffindor student at Hogwarts.
About me
Name: Let’s call me Claudia for now.
Age: I’m not comfortable disclosing that, sorry.
Gender: Female
RP Experience: None
Other characters: None
RP sample: As the crowd erupted into polite claps, Moira felt her stomach drop. Jason, impulsive Jason, brave Jason, defender of the weak, was a Ravenclaw? She flashed him a supportive smile as he passed by and glanced over at his house’s table. Then again, what was wrong with Ravenclaws? Her own best friend belonged to the house! Besides, Jason could have done worse.
Turning back to the banquet before her, she picked a glistening, still-steaming roll from the basket in front of her. Hesitating, she forced herself to take a second. It was a day of celebration, she reminded herself. Her cousin was here, he was in a good house, and all was well with the world. Yet, biting into one of the rolls, she found it stuck in her throat. Sure, he was okay. Happy, even. But he wasn’t with her. Did that mean that he was against her?
Swallowing hard, she forced the doubts away. They were closer than blood-siblings; no matter what the house, they always had their relationship. How could she doubt that? She took another bite out of her bread, suddenly starving. For now, anyway, she’d let carbs solve the problem. As she ate, she casually let her mind wander.
She was in a concert hall, up on stage with her violin. Jason sat alone in the audience, in the very front row. Moira brought her instrument up to her chin and began to play. It was a sad song, but with hope in it. It was pretty good, too. Coming back to reality, Moira closed her eyes and focused, humming out the tune. She’d write it down later on. She didn’t care if anyone saw her composing; after five years with the same group of peers, she had lost all sense of shame around her music. Very few wizards kept up muggle hobbies, she found, so no one really gave her a hard time. It was the magical subjects she was concerned about. In a place where everyone knew about everything magical, why wouldn’t she be judged? The very possibility caused a break in her concentration, and Moira’s eyes fluttered open. She was back at the Gryffindor table, conversations buzzing around her. Perhaps she should join one.
Or, perhaps, she could go back to her bread.
Picking up the roll, she took yet another grudging bite. Tonight, it was just her and her food. Then again, that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Full name: Moira Jeanine Tang
Nicknames: Moy, Jean; her family has called her Moy since her 6-year-old cousins, who couldn’t pronounce her name when they were little, began using it. However, she prefers to go by Jean, since she doesn’t like the name Moira and thinks that Jeanine is too plain; Jean is much more edgy, which she thinks suits her personality better.
Age: 15
Place of birth: Houston, Texas
Birthday: September 7th
Bloodtype: Muggleborn
Sexuality: Straight
House/year: Gryffindor, year 5
Affiliation: Good
Wand: Oak, dragon heartstring, 11 ½ inches, slightly springy
Hair: Moira has neatly combed, frequently-washed black hair (which she never dyes) styled in a blunt pixie-cut. Her bangs sweep across the left side of her face, and meet her eyebrows. She normally wears a hair band, although it doesn’t sweep her hair back; she just likes the way it looks.
Eyes: Moira’s eyes are big and brown, framed by short eyelashes. Her irises are often described as mesmerizing, because while their outer rims are so dark they’re almost black, their colour follows a gradient inwards, getting lighter and lighter until they reach a warm, almost hazel colour on their innermost rim.
Body type: Moira is 5 feet 7 inches tall, and has a fairly large chest (size 36C), although the rest of her is straight-up-and-down. She’s fairly slender, although would insist that she is simply average. Her skin is slightly tanned, and she has size 8 feet.
Unique feature: Her eyes are pretty unique, but she also has ears which are slightly pointed. She doesn’t mind that, though, so she cuts her hair short rather than hiding her ears behind long locks.
Animagus: Moira doesn’t know what animagus she is, and doubts she even has one, but if you asked her she’d probably say she was a mastiff or some other form of big dog.
Face Claim: She’s fairly unique, but has been told she kind of resembles a young Lucy Liu.
Extra details: Usually wears dark clothing; a standard uniform for her is dark-wash skinny jeans, a black t-shirt with bright designs on it, and a pastel-coloured sweater, which is more to please her aunt than anything. Her favourite shoes are a pair of red sneakers, with Velcro straps instead of laces; she isn’t particularly dextrous. Her fingernails are usually cut down to the quick, which her aunt does for her because she’s a nail-biter; her aunt figures that if she doesn’t have nails to bite, she can’t feed in to the habit. Her skin isn’t particularly bad, although she does have a tendency to get acne right under her bangs.
Patronus: Moira’s best memory is also her earliest. In it, she is 5 years old. It’s father’s day, and she and her family have gone for a picnic. While she and her father are eating, a blue-and-purple-winged butterfly floats by. Her father encourages her to follow it, and they chase it down a little hill, where they discover a small flowerbed tended by the city gardening council. All around the flowerbed, there are butterflies of every shape and colour. She and her father played with the butterflies, chasing them and trying to catch one, all day, and her father deemed it their “special spot”. From then on, they had picnics there every week, and the magic never seemed to wear off. This is her favourite memory because her father left around a year later after cracking under the strain of having a witch for a child. As long as she had the butterfly garden, however, she had the hope that they still had a special connection. The memory of the butterfly garden has really influenced Moira’s patronus. Her patronus is a butterfly, because she still believes her father will come back one day, having accepted her for who she is. The butterfly has become synonymous with her father, who she still views as her protector.
Dementor: Moira’s worst memory is waking up on one of her designated “picnic days” and going to her parents’ room, only to discover that her father wasn’t there. She searched all around the house, but still couldn’t find him. Thinking that he had left without her, she tried to leave the house and go to the park to catch up with him, despite the fact that she didn’t actually know the way. Luckily, her mother, who had known that her husband left in the middle of the night, stopped Moira before the little girl had left. However, because she was so deeply hurt by her husband’s leaving, and realized that it was Moira’s fault he had left, she took out her anger on her daughter, beating her until Moira lost control. Moira’s magic took over, and blasted her mother against a wall so hard that the woman lost consciousness. The pain, panic, and betrayal she felt that day have continued to haunt Moira; for example, she hesitates to make friends because she fears that they, too, will blame her for something she can’t control, and will leave her and hate her.
Mirror of Erised: If Moira looked in the mirror of Erised, she would see her mother and father posing for a portrait with her, their arms around her. They are all laughing and smiling, and as the camera snaps they lean down and kiss her on the cheeks. It is clear that her parents love one another.
Boggart: Moira’s deepest fear is of heights. This is because she feels she has no control up high; Moira likes to know exactly what is going on with herself, and to feel as if she can control her environment, but loses that sense of control when she is up high. When a boggart attacks her, it makes her feel as if she is levitating up, and forms the sky out of the ceiling. When she uses the ridikkulus charm, it drops her and morphs into a giant bouncy-castle.
Amortentia: To Moira, the best smells in the world are cinnamon, sugar, and India ink. She loves the smells of cinnamon and sugar because she has a sweet-tooth, and associates sweetness (especially cinnamon rolls, her favourite treat) with happiness and her family, which she often bakes with. She also loves the smell of India ink, just because “It reeks of intelligence and creativity!”, as she’ll often quip.
Strengths: Moira’s strengths include her ability to make it look like she’s not hurt, her imagination, her extraversion, her ability to recognize patterns, and her strong sense of discipline. Her ability to make it look like she’s not hurt means that when someone insults her, she can convincingly brush it off, even if it does actually hurt her feelings. She will always stand up again after being beaten down, either physically or verbally, which intimidates people and discourages them from picking on her, since it appears as if they won’t actually have an effect on her. Her imagination is also a strength because when she is hurt, she can recede into a perfect world inside her head and effectively make herself feel better. Her imagination also makes her a fun person to talk to, and means that she can see connections where others can’t. This imagination lends itself to her two next strengths, her extraversion and her ability to recognize patterns. Her extraversion is a strength because she can build strong networks, even if it takes a little time for her to trust people, and people easily trust her. Her ability to recognize patterns is a strength especially when concerning magic because she can easily link charms, predict how to make potions, excel in divinity, and predict how to defend herself against dark magic based on patterns she’s found in these areas; this makes up for her academic weaknesses. Lastly, her discipline is a strength because it contributes to everything she does; she has the discipline to work hard and constantly better even areas of strength. Her discipline allows her not to get too cocky.
Weaknesses: Moira’s weaknesses include her mistrust of people, dyslexia, low self-esteem (even though she won’t show it), tendency to get jealous, and tendency to be so overly opinionated that she will not listen to any other points of view. Moira is very mistrustful of people, due to her worst memory, which means that even though she’s good at making friends, she can never really bring herself to fully trust them. This builds paranoia within her, especially since she’s imaginative with her mistrust. She also has dyslexia. This is a weakness for school subjects, and a point of insecurity for her; she considers herself to be a bad witch because she cannot read her textbooks, meaning she can’t do as well in class as some of her peers. Her insecurities often mean that Moira gets jealous very easily; this further adds to her mistrust of people, and has a tendency to close her mind off from help. For example, if another student offers to help her with her homework, she will say no because she is jealous of their ability to complete homework and will think that they’re making fun of her. Moira’s also very opinionated, due to her low self-esteem; her opinions and values are, in her opinion, the only thing she’s got. This means that she can be a little closed-minded sometimes, sticking too much to what she thinks she knows. Of course, it goes without saying that her greatest weakness of all is her low self-esteem. Even though she doesn’t let it show, and works hard to make up the difference, she can’t really reach her full potential because she’s convinced she’s no good. Her self-loathing also takes a physical toll; she’s often very tired because she can’t sleep at night, being kept awake by bad thoughts.
Hobbies/quirks/whims/habits: Moira has played the violin since she was 9 years old, and adores it. She considers it her favourite hobby and practices even when she isn’t holding a violin by moving her fingers absent-mindedly as if they’re gliding along strings. She also likes quidditch. However, since her fear of heights prevents her from playing or going to watch the sport, she satisfies herself with following it in the news. Her favourite team is Ireland. Some of her habits include nail-biting, which her aunt is currently trying to make her quit, and chewing the inside of her cheek. These started out as nervous habits she adopted when she moved to London shortly after her father left, and she now does them consistently. Some of her quirks include winking at first-years, which she finds funny since it makes them incredibly uncomfortable, and pointing and snapping at something she sees that she likes, on the occasion that she gets overexcited (which she tries not to let happen to often). She likes smelling and touching new things, because she loves feeling stimulated by the different senses. She can get a little hot under the collar sometimes, especially when her beliefs are challenged. It’s hard to argue with her, but she enjoys debating all the same. She feels compelled to always behave and appear tough—this is probably a defense mechanism put in place to guard her insecurities.
Likes: Moira likes music, especially muggle classical music from the romantic era. Her favourite subjects at school include divination, potions, and muggle studies, because divination requires imagination, potions makes her feel powerful, and muggle studies allows her to throwback to her upbringing by two muggle parents. She’s an avid reader of The Daily Prophet, and an even more avid debater of the things she reads. She also has a secret love for muggle comic books, especially Batman; she’s a fan of all things dark. She also has a sweet-tooth (especially when it comes to butterbeer), although she doesn’t like people to know about it since she thinks it makes her look less tough.
Dislikes: Moira dislikes swimming, because she doesn’t like the smell of chlorine or the feeling of being suspended (once again emulating the feeling of having no control). She also dislikes citrus fruits, because she can’t stand their acidity. She doesn’t like rune studies or anything that has a lot of reading in general, because that forces her to admit that she struggles with it. She dislikes menial labour, because she thinks it’s boring, but engages in it quite frequently partly out of necessity and partly because she views it as a vehicle to recede into her imagination. She doesn’t dislike many people, but if she does dislike you, she’ll let you know it. Her worst dislike, however, is of the colour purple. She has never known why, since purple is a colour in connection with the butterfly of her favourite memory, but she views it as an exceptionally ugly colour. Perhaps this is where the association of her parents’ betrayal comes in.
Temperament/allegiance: Generally, anything that Moira views as “injust” sets her off. She doesn’t like seeing people bullied, and does not like shows of discrimination against others; it reminds her too much of how she was a “freak” in her childhood. She also hates it when people disagree with her. On the other hand, Moira becomes really happy around her friends or when she’s playing the violin. When she succeeds, especially at something difficult, she becomes very, very happy and rewards herself with sweets, which extend her feeling of happiness. She also, of course, likes it when people who initially disagree with her come to agree; she views this as a victory as well as a validation of her opinion.
General personality: Moira is a proud, serious person who is easily inspired and very passionate about causes that pique her interest. She’s got a very certain sense of who she is—she doesn’t waiver in her interests much. That being said, she still prefers the new as opposed to the routine, within reason. She likes to go to new vacation spots or to eat lunch in a new spot each day, for example, but doesn’t like new friends. This doesn’t mean she doesn’t like making them—she’s quite sociable—but it takes her a while to actually like them and trust them. She doesn’t forget easily, as much as she tries, which is why past mistakes or even events she couldn’t control tend to haunt her, affecting her self-esteem, which is quite low. She knows this about herself, though, and wants to change it. She tries her best at taking that initiative, but doesn’t really know how to make the small changes within herself that make the most impact. She is usually someone that people tend to flock towards, because she is a good leader who has an outside appearance of infallibility and strength. However, if she doesn’t like you, she makes it known. This contributes to her “tough girl” image, which, while reflecting some of her personality (she really does like ‘punk’-style clothes), is often exploited as a method of defense. Moira, when excited, can be quite silly, often pulling little pranks or cracking jokes in moments of happiness. In terms of what makes her laugh, even though she’s actually quite easily embarrassed, she does have quite a dirty sense of humour. This means that she’ll often turn red while giggling like a little kid!
Nationality: Moira’s grandparents on her mothers’ side came to Texas from China just after her mother was born. Her father came from Taiwan when he was 25. Moira was born in America, but is of Chinese-Taiwanese origin.
Home town/current residence: Moira was born in Houston, Texas. When she was 4, her parents moved to Dallas for a period of time to accommodate a temporary work position of her mother’s, before moving back to Houston. When she was 6, after her father left and she threw her mother against a wall, she was given away to her aunt. Her aunt, also a muggle, met a wizard when she went to study in London and married him, bearing two magical children, so she knew plenty about raising a witch. Thus, Moira moved to London with them, to a suburb near Diagon Alley with a high population of wizarding families.
Financial status: Her family is strictly middle-class. Her mother and father, an engineer and a professor, were upper-middle class. The family she now lives with, her aunt, uncle, and cousins, are lower-middle class. Her aunt is a nurse, and her uncle works in the Ministry’s department for control of magical creatures.
Family relations: Moira’s grandparents are all dead, except for her uncle’s mother, who she now considers to be her grandma even though her uncle married into the family. He and his mother are of Irish, pureblood descent. Her uncle, James Whittaker, is 35 and works for the Ministry of magic. His mother, Catherine Whittaker (nee McAllister), is 74 and retired, since she didn’t go back to work after James was grown. Moira’s mother was called An-Jing Li, and her father was named Ken Tang. However, due to her parents’ abandonment, Moira lives with her aunt, Stephanie Li, and her uncle, James Whittaker. Stephanie is 33. Moira has two cousins, Ivy and Jason Whittaker-Li, who are 8 and 11, respectively. Jason is in Ravenclaw in his first year at Hogwarts. Moira met her best friend, Lily Tomlinson, when she moved in with Stephanie and James. Lily was her next door neighbour, and is the same age as Moira, but is also in Ravenclaw.
Relationship: Moira’s single, and she wouldn’t mind mingling, but isn’t actively looking for anyone. If the right person comes along, she will chase after them.
Pets: Moira has a silver tomcat named Dodge.
General history: An-Jing and Ken met each other at the University of Texas when they were 27. An-Jing was completing her dissertation on astrophysics, and Ken was hired as part of her team to conduct the research. They spent a lot of time together, Ken being the lead engineer and An-Jing being the director of the project. One thing led to another, and Ken proposed on the same day that An-Jing earned her doctorate a year later. They bought an apartment in Texas and married abroad in Beijing. Soon enough, they were pregnant with their first child, a boy. They couldn’t have been more excited, until An-Jing went into labour 4 months early. Kevin Tang was born with severe heart complications, and died ten hours later. Devastated, the couple waited a year before trying again. This time, they gave birth to a wonderful, healthy girl. Moira Jeanine Tang was the answer to their prayers, never crying, sleeping through the night—at times, she was too perfect. Indeed, soon magic was revealed to be involved. Moira would move toys around, levitating them, open and close blinds without touching them, and once even completely changed the colour of the paint on her nursery walls! Her parents were faced with the difficult position of raising a magical child. Luckily, An-Jing’s own sister, Sophia, entered into a relationship with a wizard named James Whittaker when Moira was 4. James and Sophia tried to help An-Jing and Ken raise their little witch, and for a while succeeded—the family progressed to a teetering sort of peace, balancing oddity with normalcy and avoiding major incidents. Yet behind closed doors Moira’s magic took a toll on her parents’ marriage. They worried. They blamed each other. They fought. It was too much for Ken, who left his family when Moira was 6. Upon discovering the abandonment, which took place without so much as a note, An-Jing snapped. She directed her anger towards Moira, beating her so badly that Moira’s magic took over, slamming the woman into a wall so hard that An-Jing had to be hospitalized. James was, of course, notified by a magic-monitoring organization, and An-Jing consented to giving her brother-in-law custody over Moira. Moira had become a relatively broken child by then, but trusted James because she knew that he was the same as her. Gradually, with lots of love, Moira grew to love Sophia and James. She moved to London with them, where she lived in a suburb of mostly magical families. There, though she was healing, she was often the victim of bullying, residues of anti-muggle sentiments. As well as suffering taunts of “your parents didn’t love you!”, Moira was pinned with the new label of “mudblood”. This took a toll on her self-esteem, but also gave her strength; she grew a thick skin and a disciplined, perseverant attitude. Her bright, imaginative spirit wasn’t affected, thanks in part to the encouragement of her best friend and next-door-neighbour Lily Tomlinson. They currently go to Hogwarts together, but are in different houses—Lily is in Ravenclaw. That being said, they’ve managed to maintain their friendship, bonding especially through their shared passions for music; they’re both advanced violinists. Currently, Moira is a 5th year Gryffindor student at Hogwarts.
About me
Name: Let’s call me Claudia for now.
Age: I’m not comfortable disclosing that, sorry.
Gender: Female
RP Experience: None
Other characters: None
RP sample: As the crowd erupted into polite claps, Moira felt her stomach drop. Jason, impulsive Jason, brave Jason, defender of the weak, was a Ravenclaw? She flashed him a supportive smile as he passed by and glanced over at his house’s table. Then again, what was wrong with Ravenclaws? Her own best friend belonged to the house! Besides, Jason could have done worse.
Turning back to the banquet before her, she picked a glistening, still-steaming roll from the basket in front of her. Hesitating, she forced herself to take a second. It was a day of celebration, she reminded herself. Her cousin was here, he was in a good house, and all was well with the world. Yet, biting into one of the rolls, she found it stuck in her throat. Sure, he was okay. Happy, even. But he wasn’t with her. Did that mean that he was against her?
Swallowing hard, she forced the doubts away. They were closer than blood-siblings; no matter what the house, they always had their relationship. How could she doubt that? She took another bite out of her bread, suddenly starving. For now, anyway, she’d let carbs solve the problem. As she ate, she casually let her mind wander.
She was in a concert hall, up on stage with her violin. Jason sat alone in the audience, in the very front row. Moira brought her instrument up to her chin and began to play. It was a sad song, but with hope in it. It was pretty good, too. Coming back to reality, Moira closed her eyes and focused, humming out the tune. She’d write it down later on. She didn’t care if anyone saw her composing; after five years with the same group of peers, she had lost all sense of shame around her music. Very few wizards kept up muggle hobbies, she found, so no one really gave her a hard time. It was the magical subjects she was concerned about. In a place where everyone knew about everything magical, why wouldn’t she be judged? The very possibility caused a break in her concentration, and Moira’s eyes fluttered open. She was back at the Gryffindor table, conversations buzzing around her. Perhaps she should join one.
Or, perhaps, she could go back to her bread.
Picking up the roll, she took yet another grudging bite. Tonight, it was just her and her food. Then again, that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
