Bronte (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} brontesaurus) wrote,@ 2010-08-24 20:58:00 |
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| Entry tags: | !application, !info, character: ruby baker, game: wmu |
OOC
Name: Bronte
Email: brontesaurus4791@gmail.com
AIM: brontosaurus2
Journal SN:
missrubyCharacter's PB: Jane Aldridge
Did you hold this character? Yes
IC
Name: Ruby Eleanor Baker
Birthday & Age: October 19, 2004 - 19
Year: 9
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
Bloodline: Muggleborn
Parents: John and Kristin (Hill) Baker
Siblings: Duke (16) and Ivy (12)
Home Town: Grays, Essex.
Former School House: Hufflepuff
House Style: One
Quidditch Position: None
Fraternity: None
Two Required Classes: Advanced History of Magic and Advanced Charms
Main Area of Study: Education
Elective Class: Fall: History of Magic: 1700-1800AD
Winter: Muggle History's Impact on Wizarding History
Spring: Advanced Muggle Relations
General Personality:
The first thing most people notice about Ruby is that she's kind and patient. It takes a fair bit to anger her, but when you do she's got quite a temper and can hold a grudge. Mostly she's a sweet girl, who tries to be nice to most, even those she doesn't like. She does sometimes complain about people behind their back but mostly tries to keep any bad opinions about people that she has to herself. She's a bit of a peacemaker, hating fights between her friends. She'll always try settle them as quickly and as painlessly as possible.
Despite being a peacemaker, Ruby is stubborn and bossy. When its her that is in an argument, she isn't so peaceful and will defend her opinion fiercely. She enjoys having control over situations and so is prone to telling people what to do and gets a bit snippy when people don't listen to her. She hates being told that she's wrong and will get quite moody if this happens.
Ruby enjoys studying and reading and it committed when it comes to work. She's not one to procrastinate, preferring getting things done before going out. She finds this way she can enjoy herself more as she doesn't have to worry about whether or not she'll have time to finish an assignment if she goes out. She can be persuaded into leaving her work to have some fun, but it's not something she would do without someone else's influence.
Although hardworking academically, Ruby is physically lazy. Sports don't interest her and she's not really the outdoorsy type. She doesn't even particularly like watching Quidditch, she just thinks there's way more interesting ways to be spending time. Being curled up in bed or on a chair with a cup of tea (Ruby loves tea of all kinds and usually drinks multiple cups of it a day) and a book sounds much more appealing to her than going outside and doing something athletic.
Ruby's three favourite things would be tea, books about history and pretty things. She loves things to be aesthetically pleasing and so surrounds herself with pretty objects, whether it be her clothing, the decor of her room, or, to an extent, her friends. She's prone to buying things just because she thinks they're pretty, even though they usually turn out to be useless, and so isn't all that great at saving money. Along with liking things to look nice, Ruby likes things to be clean. Her room is always spotless as she finds she can't work until it is (not that she usually lets it get messy but occasionally there might be a stray shoe lying around or something). She's the type who has to wash her dishes as soon as she's finished using them. By hand too, she doesn't trust that magic will clean them sufficiently. She hates it when house mates don't clean up after themselves and will often end up cleaining for them if they leave it too long, just so she doesn't have to look at the mess. She is also likely to clean something someone else has cleaned if its not done to her standards. It's not that she likes cleaning, just that she can't stand mess.
Ruby is imaginative and enjoys coming up with solutions for problems that other people might not think of. She has a tendency of not thinking these ideas through properly and ignoring all the practicalities. She's more of a big picture person than a detail-orientated one so while her idea might seem good, in reality they aren't often much use, at least not without some tweaking. Her favourite thing to come up with solutions for is a way to bridge the gap between muggles and wizards. She strongle believes in the rights of muggles and muggleborns, being one herself, and can be outspoken about this. Sometimes she thinks muggles should just be told that magic is real, it's not like they still try to burn witches! On a more realistic level, she wants the distinction between blood types to be abolished. Muggleborns shouldn't be made to feel inferior or unwanted just because their parents weren't magical!
History:
Kristen Hill's mother owned a small shoe shop in Essex which Kristen worked in. John Baker wasn't really the shoe shopping type but his girlfriend at the time had dragged him into the store. While she tried on a thousand pairs of shoes, John and Kristen got to talking. Once his girlfriend had chosen a pair of shoes, however, John left and Kristen just assumed she'd never see him again. A few months later John came back to buy his girlfriend another pair of shoes as a Christmas present. Seeing Kristen there again he asked her out for coffee (as friends, of course, seeing as he did have a girlfriend). The two found they got on well and started meeting up more regulary. Eventually he and his girlfriend broke up and he asked Kristen out instead.
After a few years of dating, John and Kristen were married and a couple of years after that Ruby was born. Ruby's first couple of years were normal, her mum taking time off from the shop to look after her until she no longer needed almost constant attention. Once Ruby was a little older, Kristen would take her to work with her so Ruby spent much of her childhood in a shoe shop. As did her brother, Duke, who was born just under four years later. He, as a now sixteen year old boy, does not like to remind people how much he knows about shoes and pretends he didn't spend a lot of time around them.
Not long after Duke's birth, and around the time that Kristen's dad died, Kristen's mother decided to hand the shop over to Kristen and just work there part time. With Kristen now having to do more work, she and John decided not to have anymore children. But a few years later, Ivy was born anyway.
The oldest of the three children, it was usually Ruby's responsibility to look after Duke and Ivy and make sure they didn't cause too much trouble around the shop. Her favourite way to keep her siblings occupied was to play Schools with them. Her siblings often tired of this game, especially since not only did she play it in the back room of the shop but also played it at home. When her siblings got bored she'd just play it with her toys instead (her favourite teddy bear was always top of the class).
She attended primary school like other muggle children and her parents never suspected there was anything different about her. The only real clue had been that when she was a child, Ruby would always tell people that the pictures in her books moved. She was the only one that ever saw this and so her parents just assumed she had an over active imagination. When she received her Hogwarts letter (and once her parents were convinced that it was real) they realised that it her been accidental magic causing the pictures to move.
She was quite nervous to go off to Hogwarts, the whole idea of magic really exisiting being new to her. It had always been Ivy that had been obsessed with things like fairies and witches and all things fantasy-like, Ruby had always been far more practical and yet there she was, at a school for witches and wizards, in a room that looked like the roof was the sky, and about to have a talking hat put on her head. It was all very overwhelming! To make matters worse, her name was near the beginning of the alphabet so she was one of the first to be sorted. The hat placed her in Hufflepuff, where she soon made some friends. Although she was homesick at first, she soon got over it and started enjoying the school.
Her favourite subject soon became History of Magic (how was being taught by a ghost not fascinating?) followed closely by charms. She made good friends and had a mostly pleasant time at school. The only real negatives for her were missing her family and sometimes being looked down upon for being a muggleborn. She tried not to let these things bother her too much though.
Ruby didn't know if her siblings would end up going to Hogwarts or not. Duke had never really displayed any signs of being a wizard so it wasn't too much of a surprise when he didn't receive a letter. Ivy, being fascinated with all things magical, was desperate to be a witch and would even read Ruby's text books during the holidays so she'd be prepared when she started Hogwarts. Ivy seemed to display signs of being magical, but it turned out she was making these up and she didn't receive a letter. She's still sulking about this and is not talking to Ruby because of it, her reasoning being it's not fair that her sister who didn't even care about magic before finding out she was a witch got to go to magic school and she, the one who loved magic, didn't.
Ruby had always liked the idea of becoming a teacher so what to do when she graduated was never a huge decision for her. She entered WMU, choosing to do teaching as her course and the History of Magic classes as her main electives. She knows it's probablt a hard job to get, seeing as the teacher is a ghost and therefore unlikely to leave but it's what she wants to do and Binns has to retire one day, right?
She's now in her second year at WMU and is mostly enjoying her course, although sometimes the fact that Binns is unlikely to ever leave his post as History of Magic teacher gets her down. When it's not term time she returns home and works in the Thameside Theatre bar. Bar tending skills are always a useful skill to have after all!
Sample Thread: It had been a long night at work. It was the closing night of one of the more popular plays of the season and it had been sold out. The number of people ordering drinks at half time had been huge and some people had even stayed for a drink after the play. All Ruby wanted to do was get home, get out of her work clothes (which stunk of beer thanks to a clumsy work mate) and relax with a nice cup of tea.
Entering the house she headed straight for the kitchen to let the kettle boil while she changed into her pyjamas but was stopped in her tracks before she could fill it with water. Someone had forgotten to clean the dishes. Ruby was pretty sure it had been Ivy's turn to wash them that night, so she was certain this was done on purpose, as revenge for the fact Ruby was a witch and Ivy wasn't. Ruby thought if Ivy was going to blame anyone it should be their parents for passing on the wrong genes. Or however magic ability was decided, Ruby didn't know the science of it all. But no, it was her fault according to Ivy.
Ruby sighed as she filled the sink with hot, soapy water. She couldn't wait to return to university, were hopefully her house mates were mature enough not to leave the dishes unclean as a way of expressing their anger.
Sample Journal: I was running low on tea so I went out and brought a few more packets today. There are some really interesting flavours out there that I can't wait to try! Right now I'm sipping a cup of 'Tropical Fruit Sunset' which almost sounds like it could be a cocktail. Apparently it contains hibiscus, papaya, orange, apple, cinnamon and sultanas among other things. It's quite nice, not one of my favourites but still very drinkable. I also found some tea that's apparently sort of rare and popular because it's meant to prevent sagging skin. Not that that's something I have to deal with yet but it could be useful in the future!
I also found a gorgeous tea pot and couldn't resist buying it to add to me collection. Luckily I spent the holidays working.