#I need something to call this person other than “not-cedar” or just using pronouns that WILL NOT communicate to them that it's them

[anarcho-masochist]

It really is like my brain went, "Wow, those are powerful intrusive thoughts you've got there. You know what's more powerful? Your desire to see this guy traumatized. Have 1.5 days of maladaptive daydreaming about them."

[strategemme]

I THINK WITH MY HEART AND I MOVE WITH MY HEAD

EMMELINE VANCE: Character Task No. 1

𝖖 𝖚 𝖔 𝖙 𝖊 𝖘

The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves. I don't trust society to protect us, I have no intention of placing my fate in the hands of men whose only qualification is that they managed to con a block of people to vote for them. They used to say that if Man was meant to fly, he’d have wings. But he did fly. He discovered he had to. There are things that have to be done and you do them and you never talk about them. You don't try to justify them. They can't be justified. You just do them. Then you forget it. Due to personal reasons, I will be performing vigilante justice. 

𝖇 𝖆 𝖘 𝖎 𝖈

NAME: Emmeline L. Vance; there isn’t a soul (presently) alive that knows what the “L” stands for. NICKNAMES: Em; other abbreviations of her name are generally acceptable as long as you don’t try to call her Emmie.  AGE: 22 BIRTHDAY: August 27, 1957 GENDER: Female PRONOUNS: She/Her

𝖋 𝖆 𝖒 𝖎 𝖑 𝖞

MOTHER: Florence Vance neé Chevalier ( 50 ) { born in France, moved to England after marrying Devon } // muggle  FATHER: Col. Devon Vance ( 57 ) { recently retired from the British Army } // muggle  SIBLINGS: Anthony Vance ( 28 ) { named after a dear friend of Devon’s that was killed during the Second World War } // muggle 

𝖕 𝖍 𝖞 𝖘 𝖎 𝖈 𝖆 𝖑 𝖆𝖙𝖙𝖗𝖎𝖇𝖚𝖙𝖊𝖘

FACE CLAIM: Demet Özdemir BUILD: Average height, athletic HAIR: Long, worn in waves on nights requiring effort and otherwise tossed into a bun   HAIR COLOR: Brunette EYE COLOR: Brown SKIN COLOR: Tan DOMINANT HAND: Right { she’s pitiful when it comes to her left hand }  ANOMALIES: (1) Scar across her left palm from making a blood-pact as a ten year old; it’s so faded now that you can only catch a gleam of silver in the bright sun. (2) Various small burns across her hands and forearms from healing poultices gone askew. SCENT: Vanilla and cedar wood; she’s worn the same perfume since her Hogwarts  ACCENT: Standard English  ALLERGIES: Cats  DISORDERS: Insomnia; she’s always attributed it to a general pace of “too much to do and too little time,” but there are nights when all she wants to do is collapse into her bed yet finds herself condemned to staring at the ceiling; many people make the mistake of believing that she doesn’t need sleep to operate, but her history of errors speaks otherwise.  FASHION: She spends far more time in lime green robes than she cares for, and thus compensates with a wardrobe full of neutral colors. She still feels more comfortable in muggle attire than wizarding robes, and thus is seen frequently in various combinations of jeans, blouses, and boots.  NERVOUS TICS: After years of having her tics evaluated and erased, Emmeline has largely eradicated any tells of nervousness. Old habits die hard, however, and with the stress of the war mounting, she’s falling back into drumming her index and middle finger on any solid surface capable of absorbing her anxiety. As she’s assumed a leadership position, she’s also taken up the habit of pacing while waiting for her teams of tier three operatives to return.  QUIRKS: (1) With the current travel restrictions, Emmeline has fallen back into driving. She learned during one of her summers away from Hogwarts, and her trusty Vauxhall Viva has carried her across Britain and back several times over. (2) When approach Diagon Alley for pleasure, Emmeline prefers to enter through the Leaky Cauldron. There’s something symbolic about crossing from Muggle to Wizarding London. (3) If Emmeline starts something, she has to finish. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, she cannot abandon a task already underway. It is one of the reasons she spends so long planning: planning necessitates time and distance while action must be immediate. 

𝖑 𝖎 𝖋 𝖊 𝖘 𝖙 𝖞 𝖑 𝖊

RESIDES: Puddlemere, England { London has always been home, and her work at St. Mungo’s frequently brings her into the city. But as war rears its head, Emmeline has opted for more strategic ground. The community of Puddlemere is welcoming to muggleborns, and her proximity to other Order members offers safety that could never be found in city streets. } BORN: London, England  RAISED: Too many places to count, though Emmeline isn’t partial to declaring military barracks as her hometown. Jokingly, she’ll say that Hogwarts was the most permanent home she had while growing up. More seriously, she’ll consider herself a Londoner.  PETS: A tawny owl named Machiavelli, though she considers him more of a useful friend than a pet.  CAREER: Healer { additionally, a vigilante; she offers free... how shall we say.. r e t r i b u t i o n to muggleborn and half-blood families that need a little extra muscle, be it of the offensive or defensive sort. } EXPERIENCE: In the medical field, Emmeline has specialized in accident and emergency, though it seems every Witch or Wizard only deems medical care necessary in such cases. Outside St. Mungo’s, she has frequented several underground dueling clubs to keep her skills sharp.  EMPLOYER: St. Mungo’s POLITICAL AFFILIATION: The Order of the Phoenix  BELIEFS: The the Wizarding community is in desperate need of some muggle influence (preventative medicine, to start, but automobiles, microwaves, and telephones would be a wonderful addition). The motivation of purebloods to eradicate such influence only keeps the community from advancing and reaching full potential, and the mounting war is representative of the collision between the old world and the new. (That said, she’s strongly of the belief that no one should have to die while seeking out inclusivity.)  MISDEMEANORS: Nothing that has found its way onto her record.  FELONIES: Being a muggleborn is starting to damn well feel like one.  DRUGS: Never. As much as Emmeline has a tendency to lock herself within her mind, she has yet to seek out drugs as a key.  SMOKES: Unfortunately. She knows she shouldn’t, but nicotine is often the only thing capable of taking the edge off and stimulating her focus at the same time. It’s a necessary evil, and her pocket is rarely without a pack  ALCOHOL: A taste for scotch runs in the family, and it’s often one of the most expensive items on her list of expenses for the month. She refuses to touch it while in the process of acting, but it plays a large role in her planning stages.  DIET: Emmeline never managed to find the time to take up cooking, and as such, she depends on local takeout.  LANGUAGES: English, French  PHOBIAS: Deep water { she adores swimming, but will never go so deep that her toes can’t graze the bottom } ; failure { a common fear, but many years passed where she refused to speak up in class because her fear of being wrong was greater than her confidence in being right; now those days have passed and she’s perhaps too passionately outspoken, but if she isn’t complete convinced of something, the words will never pass her lips } ; death { she’s grazed the reaper more times than she can count, either in her own life or accompanying the paths of others. still, she can’t imagine what it would be like to see her own funeral. she acts with certainty and confidence, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t fear what is on the other side of that bright green flash. } HOBBIES: Reading, board games or cards, camping, pick-up games of very, very, very amateur Quidditch  TRAITS: I never dreamed about success; I worked for it.  { + }: Hardworking, clever, frequently compassionate (but...) { - }: Occasionally apathetic, subconsciously manipulative, righteous 

𝖋 𝖆 𝖛 𝖔 𝖗 𝖎 𝖙 𝖊 𝖘

LOCATION: Diagon Alley; it is the place where she first felt that her magic was a blessing rather than a curse, and it continues to instill that childlike hope in her whenever she visits. It’s one of the few bright places remaining.  SPORTS TEAM: Puddlemere United, naturally. She’s only recently moved to Puddlemere, but she has a long history of training Mediwitches and Mediwizards during Puddlemere’s practices and matches, and as such has brushed shoulders with the team just enough to be emotionally invested in their success.  GAME: Chess (of either the muggle or wizarding variety)  MUSIC: She knows the correct answer to this is anything orchestral, yet Goodbye Yellowbrick Road is the most frequently-played record in her flat.  MOVIES: The Godfather, Patton, Saturday Night Fever FOOD: Her mother’s Beef Wellington. She’s yet to find its rival.  BEVERAGE: Scotch, Earl Grey COLOR: Light green (but certainly not lime, damn those robes) 

𝖒 𝖆 𝖌 𝖎 𝖈

ALUMNI HOUSE: Ravenclaw  WAND (length, flexibility, wood, & core): 11.25in, sturdy, redwood, dragon heartstring AMORTENTIA: Leather, incense, cotton  PATRONUS: Hawk  BOGGART: The visage of the first patient that died due to her negligence. It isn’t an exact replica from her memories, but one that is in the process of decomposing. It’s propped up in a bed like the ones populating St. Mungo’s. 

𝖈 𝖍 𝖆 𝖗 𝖆 𝖈 𝖙 𝖊 𝖗

MORAL ALIGNMENT: Neutral good  MBTI: ENTJ MBTI ROLE: Analyst ENNEAGRAM: Type 8  ENNEAGRAM ROLE: The Achiever  TEMPERAMENT: Choleric WESTERN ZODIAC: Virgo  CHINESE ZODIAC: Rooster PRIMAL SIGN: Corgi TAROT CARD: The Chariot TV TROPES: Lady of War, Female Empowerment Song, Historical In-Joke, Showing Up Chauvinists  SONGS: Tongues -- Joywave // History Has Its Eyes on You -- Christopher Jackson // Come With Me Now -- KONGOS // Vindicated -- Dashboard Confessional // Baba O’Riley -- The Who // Vienna -- Billy Joel // Machine -- MisterWives // Kill Your Heroes -- AWOLNATION // Sabotage -- Beastie Boys 

𝖎 𝖉 𝖊 𝖔 𝖑 𝖔 𝖌 𝖎 𝖊 𝖘

Muggle influence will do more good for the wizarding world than it ever will harm

Encourages second chances but condemns those that require a third 

People should expect to get out of the world what they put in (no more, no less) 

Violence should be a last resort, but damn if it isn’t a definitive one

Those that are neutral in a time of oppression have chosen the side of the oppressor 

Sugar has no right to be in coffee or tea 

History repeats itself; if you can’t find a parallel within the pages of history books, the situation simply hasn’t developed thoroughly enough yet 

Cheap scotch is worse than sewer water 

[the-witchy-woman9257]

My Husband Isn’t JUST My Husband . . . And That’s Amazing: A Short Story of a CIS/Herterosexual Woman in a Non-Binary Relationship.

(Disclaimer: My husband’s preferred gender pronouns are HIM/HE unless otherwise specified to me through specific communication)

My husband isn’t my husband. He’s my partner. But no one else knows. It’s been so hard to remember that he’s my PARTNER, not my HUSBAND. To change years of specified gender stereotypes that I grew up with has been maybe the easiest part of this transition.

Now, I’ve been with my husband since we were what most would consider very young. I married him when I was 22, he was 23. We began dating when I was 14, he 15. 

And it’s always been a healthy relationship. He’s my best friend, my person. I’ve never loved anyone as much as I love him, need him, in my life. He fills the parts of me where I fall woefully short. Math skills, patience, calmness of spirit, and he’s got this ability to be vulnerable without being hostile that I have always envied.

He told me when he asked me to marry him what he thought was “wrong with him”. 

Now, I don’t consider myself “woke” and I don’t like to put labels on anything. But I knew well enough it was important for me to be supportive. He didn’t even have a name for it when he told me. He was scared I would leave, stop loving him, tell everyone we knew and ridicule him. 

And he had every right to be scared. I was his only family. His mother gone and negligent, his father mentally ill and a long way away, his siblings his only thin tether. My parents, grandparents and myself were all he’d had for a long time and helped through many other seemingly more simple issues in his life. He felt he couldn’t survive losing us, but he also felt he couldn’t survive not telling me.

I knew what it was the second he told me. I had always known it as 2-Spirited (as we have a large native population here, my husband himself being native). I’d also heard it called Gender Fluid or Non-Binary. I’d read about these things enough on many media platforms to get an idea and a little research confirmed our suspicions. 

So no, it wasn’t a surprise when he told me. I’d known, on a deep level, for a long time. The secret online persona, the messages and sexting online as a woman rather than a man. The stealing of my panties, the ones I never wore or liked, for himself. None of it bothered me. None of that bothered me. Because I loved his kind, gentle heart, his smart, witty mind and his one of a kind personality. None of that changed from gender to gender. His soul never changed.

But . . . There are some days when I want my HUSBAND, I want a solid wall of hard muscle and cedar scented flannel and delightfully rough stubble against my neck to hold, because that was who he was as a man. 

But instead, he’d be home in his sun dress, and he’s shaved his face and applied his make up PERFECTLY and obscured the hard lines and muscles I find appealing with soft curves. I want to cry and I think “This isn’t what I signed up for.”

But it is. It is EXACTLY what I signed up for. I knew, and I married him, and I love him. He’s perfect the way he is. And it’s on those days, when I find myself frustrated with the timing, that I have to remind myself of how selfish and bitchy I sound in my own head. 

Because it is selfish of me to think that. It’s selfish of me to think how inconvenient his switch is to my current state of mind when I’ve had to talk him through the bouts of body dysphoria, both mild and severe. Selfish of me how HARD it is (*sometimes*) to tell him he’s pretty, and cute and delicate when he wears his favorite skin tight dresses and stuffs his bra and tucks himself into his tucking panties. Or to hate how much better than me he looks when he asks me to do his make up.

I end up hating myself for finding something that should be SO easy occasionally . . . a little difficult. 

BUT, it’s not always myself I hate. And it is most definitely not my husband. 

The days that make things hard are the days when we go out, and EVERY woman he sees, he says something, or I see the glances. And I’ve learned. I know which look is which, I know which look is sexual desire or the “I want to be her” desire.

And that’s why it’s hard. I’ve never been a woman of high self esteem. But I have gotten used to pretending because I had my husband by my side. He loved me, thought I was beautiful and sexy. He still does. He may be non binary, but he is undeniably heterosexual. But now, I had a different layer of jealously of all the gorgeous girls I saw.

And I hated myself the day I wished they could all be ugly so he could stop hurting and hating himself so much, but also . . . so I could have my husband back. I didn’t want or need another reason to be jealous, or covet other women their beauty, but here I was.

But, despite ALL of this, our relationship is still GOOD. He’s still my best friend. We still love and have real affection and intimacy and sexual attraction and desire. Those hateful, nagging thoughts only fleeting compared to how much I love him.

And he asks if I’m okay now. He caters to me when I’m having a hard time and he feels stable. We have ways of telling each other now what mood he’s in. I’ve learned the small things that tell me a change is coming. He now unashamedly asks me to help him into a dress or help with his make up and I do it with a GENUINE smile on my face and in my heart.

I enjoy being the dominant one in bed on occasion, ignoring his adornments and happily smearing his make up (despite being heterosexual myself) and he occasionally enjoys being the dominant one instead.

There are still days where it’s hard. For both of us, or one. But we take it one day at a time and I tell hims every day, a million and one times that I love him and he still always answers back with “I know, but, I love you more.” 

[drakewalkerstan]

Other End of the Line - Damien x MC

Summary: After the late night search with Nadia, Kai feels scared and alone, so turns to the only person they know will be on their side— Damien.

Pairing: I wrote this as Damien/MC (I used the generic name, Kai, and no pronouns) but this could technically still be Gen

Warnings: some strong language I guess?

Word Count: 1,626 oops!

Author’s Notes: Ahh! This is the first time in 6 years I’ve posted any writing online and the first time ever on Tumblr! I couldn’t get this out of my head, and it’s part of the reason I made this sideblog haha. Even though I’m drakewalkerstan, I still LOVE Damien, so this was born! 

"Hello?" Damien blearily answered his phone, half-awake and blinded by the glare of the screen.

"Damien," he heard Kai hiss on the other end. "Shit, Damien, help..."

Damien was now wide awake, he sat up in his bed and switched on the lamp on his bedside table, jamming the phone against his ear nervously.

"Kai, are you okay? What's going on?"

"I... I sound fucking crazy. I think... I think Hayden's a robot. Steve too. I swear to god, Damien, please."

"Okay, what happened," Damien asked. He was half afraid that Kai was on something right now, but he didn't want to laugh the call off just in case. Kai was silent for a moment, concentrating on the sound of Damien’s breathing on the other end in order to calm down.

"Okay, I don't know if Nadia told you, but we were in a car crash an-"

Damien’s heart stuttered for a moment, then raced back to action double-time.

"WHAT? Okay, hold up! A car crash? Are you okay? Jesus, Kai, oh my god!"

"Don't worry, I'm fine, we're all okay."

"Thank god,” Damien mumbled under his breath, his eyes squeezed shut in relief. “What happened?"

"We were driving back from the waterfall- Nadia, Steve, Hayden and I- and a deer jumped in front of the car, so Steve swerved and we crashed."

"Oh my god..."

"I’m fine, but... but Hayden tore open the car door and pulled me out."

There was a moment of complete silence, and Damien could only hear the sound of Kai's soft breathing on the other end of the line.

"What?"

"Yeah. I came to and I tried to get out of the car, but the door was totally smashed up and I just couldn't open it. Hayden was able to pry the car door open and get me out of the car. Nadia said it was adrenaline, but..."

"No, yeah, that's weird."

"Plus I asked about it, and Hayden has no memory of it because of a concussion."

Damien turns over this information in his head, but no matter how he approaches it he can’t think up a logical explanation for the insane feat of strength. Kai, silent for a moment, can almost hear the gears in his mind turning on the other end of the line.

"Okay," Kai begins, "other weird things: the fact that Steve has no memory of how to get around his town?"

"Huh?"

"We asked him to take us to the local waterfall where he used to hang out as a teen and he had absolutely no idea where to find it- he was barely able to comment on anything unless we prompted him."

"What do you mean prompting?"

"Okay, so originally Steve just talked about the tourist attractions in town, and didn't even bring up the waterfall until Nadia mentioned that someone told her about it. And then he didn't know how to find it- even though he said he'd been there a few times- until Nadia had to remind him again."

"Kai, it was a while ago, maybe he honestly forgot about it."

"Okay, get this, we visited his house today and he was acting super weird."

Damien, though now more skeptical about the conspiracy theory, opens his mind once again to Kai.

"Weird how?"

Kai takes a deep breath and tries to recollect exactly what was so unnerving about what happened in that little farmhouse.

"When we got there, his dad Robert was joking around about how he was a rascally kid and he used to ride his horse Moonlight. Steve laughed and told his dad to stop messing with us, and he honestly didn't remember that he'd ever mentioned- or even had- a horse named Moonlight!"

Kai waited for any sort of reaction, but was once again met by Damien's silence.

"Okay," Kai snarked.

"Sorry, I'm just thinking," Damien murmured. "Wasn't he concussed?"

"If he was, he didn’t mention it. I don't think that's how concussions work though!"

"Hmm, okay. Is there anything else?"

"So his dad went to the kitchen and Steve showed us a picture of him as a teenager at a football game. When Robert got back-"

"Is Robert Steve's dad?"

"Yeah, sorry." Kai said. "So Robert walks back in and sees us with the picture and gets really mad. He calls Steve into the kitchen with him, so I eavesdrop-”

“That’s my Kai,” Damien interjected proudly. Kai could hear the grin in his voice, and chuckled for a moment before continuing on. In fact, while Kai was deciding whether or not to listen in on the conversation, Damien was a key factor in motivating the eavesdropping, but that’s definitely something Damien would get cocky about, so there’s no way he’s being told that.

“Robert is really mad at Steve for showing us this picture. He tells Steve, and I quote, ‘Our personal lives are our business.’ This is apparently a regular occurrence between the two of them, too.”

“That’s strange, I’ll grant you that, but maybe Robert is really private, or senile or something,” Damien said

Despite everything, Kai snorted at the suggestion.

“I doubt he’s senile, but it gets worse. Okay, fast forward to like an hour or two ago. We are all in the bed and breakfast and I wake up and hear Nadia shouting. Steve’s fucking gone.”

“WHAT? He left?”

Damien is filled with righteous anger on behalf of his friend and it makes Kai feel stupidly warm inside. Even though, both Kai and Nadia know that their friend is a little standoffish and cynical, but any show of caring from him never fails to put a goofy smile on Kai’s face.

“His suitcase is gone,” Kai continues, ignoring Damien’s outburst, “and neither Robert nor Steve are picking up their phones. Hayden calls the police then instructs us to stay in the bed and breakfast instead of joining the search, which…is weird?”

“Kind of, yeah. Hayden insisted you stay in the room instead of all searching together?”

“Yeah! Before even trying to call Robert or the police, it was just ‘I’ll search all of Cedar Rest, I won’t stop until I find him.’ So then Nadia and I say ‘Fuck it,’ and we decide to go searching too. We head out to the waterfall, and we decide to split up-”

“Dumb.”

“-to search for clues. It’s a dinky old town, what’s dangerous about splitting up?”

“...Robots?”

“Shut up. So I find the picture that Steve showed us, which for the record is of him and his dad standing together at a football game. He also doesn’t look any younger than he does now, but whatever. You know what I notice?”

Kai waits for Damien to chime in with a ‘What?’ but he is silent.

“Okay… The matchmaker from Eros is IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE PHOTO.”

“What? Are you sure?”

“Positive! This is the exact same lady, sitting in the crowd at the football game, like… at least 5 years before he’s even supposed to be connected with Eros!”

Damien is, again, completely silent, but Kai can tell that he’s thinking about the new information. On the other end of the line, Damien runs his hand over his face, trying to think of any logical explanation of this connection, but his mind is blank.

“Yeah, that’s fishy. I believe you, something’s not right there,” Damien concedes.

“So I showed Nadia the picture, and when we came back to the bed and breakfast, I found a goodbye note from Steve right by the doormat of their room!”

“So he left of his own volition,” Damien said.

“Allegedly! Nadia went back to her room, she’s freaking out, and Robert, Steve and Hayden are all MIA.”

“So what’s happening now?”

“I’m in my bed, in case Hayden comes back,” Kai says, lowered to a whisper after realizing that the conversation had gotten way too loud. “It’s just- they’re both so perfect, and they’re both exactly in line with what we told to Eros, and with Steve’s weird past and Hayden’s fucking superstrength? Something’s not right and I’m freaked out.”

"Okay, everything’s extremely suspicious. I still don’t think they’re robots, but I’m honestly leaning towards them being a cult or something. I’m going to do some more digging into Eros, and into Steve and Hayden, okay? I’ll use some connections, try to find out how far back their records really go. You just need to stay safe and take care of you and Nadia for now.”

"Yeah. Thank you for believing me. I didn't know what else to do."

"It's no problem, I'm always here for you, Kai."

Kai sighed deeply and flipped over on the bed.

"I know I should have listened to you about Eros. Ugh, I'm so stupid..."

"No. Just because I was paranoid doesn't mean you should have been. It's good that you-"

"Shit shit I think Hayden's coming shit bye Damien"

"Wait, Kai, I-"

The sound on the other end of the line cut out and Damien pulled the phone away from his ear. Shit. He knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep now, so he got out of bed and opened his blinds, letting the early morning sun in before turning on his computer and starting his search.

On the other end of the state, Kai was stuffing the phone under the pillow and pretending to be asleep, as Hayden pulled back the covers and snuggled into bed. Kai’s heartbeat was racing, and the only comforting thought was that Damien was back home, looking for an answer. Kai felt kind of guilty, thinking about Damien like this while Hayden was curled up in the same bed, but Damien would not leave Kai’s thoughts or heart, no matter how much Kai tried.

[brokenwandsrpg]

The role of Narcissa Black will be played by the admin, Nicky. She is very open to adjusting any of the details set forth in this application to meld better with other characters so if you have ideas or questions don’t hesitate to share!

OOC INFORMATION:

NAME & PRONOUNS: Nicky [she/her]

AGE: thirty+

LANGUAGE: only English (and a useless smattering of Mando’a)

EXPERIENCE: have built and run a few games, played in several more, and done some indie rp; mostly Potterverse stuff. Current game admin.

ACTIVITY LEVEL: medium-high; will be able to do numerous, if not all, pending replies at least four or five days a week if not more often

ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT TO TELL US: I love long paras, tend to ramble when doing descriptions (especially visual ones), and am obsessed with tiny little niggling world-building/canon details. I also work at a comic book store and will happily drown you in recommendations of things to read if you ask!

DESIRED CHANGES:

none

CHARACTER BASICS:

NAME: Narcissa Carina Black; mostly called Cissy by her sisters. When passing as a Muggle she commonly goes by “Nancy” which she thinks is terribly drab, but at least she can cough and mumble and turn “Nar--er” into “Nancy” without arousing suspicion when she slips-up.

BIRTHDATE/AGE: born March 14,1955

BLOOD-STATUS: pure-blood -- she knows that this makes her better than other wix, and she knows that being a Black specifically makes her better even than other pure-bloods, but her own sense of blood-supremacist bigotry is not as honed as it is in canon; she despises Muggles and thinks of them as little better than animals, although she has through experience been forced to acknowledge that they are clever and dangerous animals at least, just savage and uncivilized as well. Muggle-borns however she regards with more pity than disgust (although still some disdain, of course!) because they are superior to the Muggles they were born among (yet still inferior to proper wix of course, because they’re part-Muggle) and should be pitied for their unfortunate birth rather than reviled; this difference is due largely to the fact that Muggle-borns are not the “threat” to magical society that they are in canon, because there is no magical society for them to “pollute” with their presence and culture...and because she’s been forced (or will be forced in future, at least) to interact with Muggle-borns as allies against the Muggles that spawned them.

GENDER & SEXUALITY: transgender female, pansexual. GENDER: Cissy was too young to fully understand the weights and expectations she was bunking when she declared herself a girl, but she knew that it was no minor thing for the family to lose the much-anticipated male heir who could carry the family name; she would have had to be a fool to be oblivious to the delight that her parents had taken in her assigned gender. The Blacks had raised their children to be stubborn and arrogant however, so she didn’t have a lot of qualms to overcome: she knew who she was and anyone else be damned. If she had been older, though, she probably would have chosen a different name for herself; the defiance of choosing a name that did not come from the stars, as was traditional for the family, was a result of childish petulance that she is too stubborn now to admit to which means she can’t go back and choose something more appropriate now (besides she already went through one name change, so she isn’t about to choose another; bad enough she sometimes has to use Muggle aliases). SEXUALITY: Cissy hasn’t given a lot of thought to lust or romance, being more interested in vengeance and violence, but she doesn’t see why someone’s gender presentation should impact her interest. Of course she has been immersed in the Muggle world enough to have picked up the idea that there’s something wrong with a girl who likes other girls, but she doesn’t understand what or why. It leaves her feeling uncomfortable and confused whenever the subject arises -- either in conversation, or when her own feelings stir -- and so she prefers to shove the whole issue to the backburner and leave it there. As a child she loved stories about dramatic romances and happily-ever-afters; as an adult she’s more interested in avenging the dead and punishing the living than she is in following her heart or figuring out what it wants.

WAND/ETC: Cedar and Dragon Heartstring, ten and a half inches. This was one of the last wands that Garick Ollivander sold before the Muggles destroyed Diagon Alley and was purchased at Narcissa’s impatient insistence for her eleventh birthday. She had hoped to practice some spells ahead of time with her sisters over the summer but instead had to learn to use her wand under much more extreme pressure.

APPEARANCE: Narcissa is a fair-complexioned white girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. Her hair is flax-blonde (paler than Dakota’s often looks) and she wears it plain and loose, tying it back in simple ponytails or braids sometimes when she needs to be more active. Mostly she and her sisters trim their own locks for practicality rather than style; Cissy prefers to wear hers a little past her shoulders. Her eyes are large and protuberant and ringed with long lashes; they have thick underlids and tend to develop bags underneath them with little provocation so she thus tends to look positively exhausted after only a few hours of missed sleep. She has the customary strong nose of her paternal lineage; combined with her prominent cheekbones and sharp chin this gives her a pinched, sharp-featured look that is more suited to sneers and smirks than to softer, sweeter expressions. Her brows and lashes are darker than her hair -- likely because it bleaches somewhat from sun exposure -- and she engages in only minimal beauty care so those brows arch in plain curves (if she were to spend time on her appearance, her preference would probably be to pluck them into a sharper, more severe tilt). She is lanky although not quite as tall as her genetics predisposed her to being; a rough adolescence with sporadically insufficient nutrition had a negative effect on her physical development and she thus did not reach her full potential stature (which leaves her at roughly average height for a British girl of her age and era since she comes from a family known for being tall; compared to her sisters she is short though, topping-out close to their chins). She is also thin in a wiry, taut-muscled sort of way with a small bosom and narrow hips. She has knobby knees and elbows and still looks a little coltish despite being past her adolescent growth stages. She has long, strong hands, and keeps her nails short. She does like nail varnish but it is usually chipped and she favors dark, bright colors: navy blue, emerald green, byzantium purple, even black. Clothing: for the first ten years of her life she dressed in fine, old-fashioned wizarding style, and favored ribbons and bows and lace and satin. When Cissy and her sisters went to ground in the Muggle world they had to divest themselves of their fine garments and scrounge appropriate Muggle garb (which took them more than a few tries to get right). Since then she spent several years wearing hand-me-downs of Muggle clothes, although now that Bella and Dromeda are no longer growing there is no longer anything to hand down, so she gets her own clothing [and presumably they may share clothes sometimes, but that’s up to Bella/Dromeda’s players to confirm/deny]. Of course much of what they purchase (or steal) is still second-hand and they rarely get to wear anything fancy; their clothes are dictated by necessity and availability more than by fashion or choice. As much as she can under those circumstances then, Cissy favors clothes that emphasize practicality without completely abandoning feminine whimsy. She prefers darker colors over bright ones (in part because it is more practical for a girl trying to avoid attention to avoid garish or neon clothing and in part because of her personal sense of aesthetics) in bold patterns. She has never learned to enjoy the feel of trousers -- or at least, she maintains that she does not out of a sense of loyalty to her roots -- and wears skirts whenever they are not entirely impractical. She does like short skirts more than long ones, despite their lack of resemblance to robes, and generally wears them with tall boots or with trainers and knee socks. Above those, she likes to dress in layers whenever possible, often sporting light jackets even in warm weather and long coats when it is cold. Cloth may not actually do anything to protect one from bullets or electricity, but Cissy feels better when she has the illusion of armor around her chest.

I would also be interested in discussing minor subplots related to magical family jewelry with Bellatrix and Andromeda’s players -- either to determine that the girls made it out with none and the Witch Hunters confiscated or destroyed the lot, or to decide on a few pieces that they managed to keep perhaps because they were already wearing them or perhaps grabbed in the mad-dash to safety, and what uses (if any) those pieces have or have been put to.

CHARACTER BACKGROUND:

FAMILY: Bellatrix -- oldest sister, role model, leader in battle. Sometimes she seems like less of a sister and more of a storm but if Cissy had to be anyone other than herself, she’d want to be Bella. She’s a little scary sometimes but in an awe-inspiring way, not a bad one. Andromeda -- middle sister, the softer one. She hesitates too much and sometimes frustrates Cissy but at the same time she’s the one Cissy turns to when she needs comfort or kindness so she can’t really hold that against Andromeda without feeling like a hypocrite. Cygnus and Druella -- parents, dead. She only remembers bits and pieces any more and feels guilty about that so she tries not to talk about them with her sisters because she doesn’t want to admit how little of their parents she recalls, which only contributes to her lack of memory for them. She wasn’t that young when they died, but the events that followed were so overwhelming and she’s spent so much time now not thinking about the life she used to have that she’s almost forgotten them on purpose, which she didn’t mean to do. Regulus and Sirius -- younger cousins. She remembers them even less and with more than a decade of growth and separation in between she surely wouldn’t recognize them now; they were practically babies when the world collapsed. Of course she assumes they’ve been dead since then, so she isn’t looking for them anyway. Vihaan Rosier -- uncle-by-marriage on her mother’s side. Finding family again after so long was wonderful, but Narcissa worries because she doesn’t trust good things happening any more; at the same time she’s second-guessing her own doubts so while her gut tells her there’s something going on with Uncle Vihaan that she shouldn’t trust, she ignores it because she thinks that’s something wrong with her, not him. Evan Rosier -- cousin, recently re-met. Cissy isn’t sure what to make of Evan but she knows she likes him; she just isn’t sure she can rely on him yet. There’s something he isn’t telling her and her sisters and that makes her nervous because they’re living on a knife’s edge and could so easily lose what little they have left if he messes up -- or worse, turns on them for some reason. She refuses to push him away even if it endangers her because she doesn’t want to loose any more family -- but if he puts her sisters at risk, she’ll kill him herself (and feel horrible about it after of course; he’s family, not some Muggle, so killing him would be awful).

ASSOCIATES: Antonin Dolohov -- he scares her; she thinks he’d sacrifice any one of them for his own ends, but at the same time he’s their best connection to proper magic and he’s proved a good teacher of Curses and other useful things...and it’s nice to have someone who remembers what life used to be like, even if she wonders sometimes if the stories he tells are entirely truthful. She wonders if he might be a coward, that maybe that’s why he keeps trying to talk them into being more subtle and discreet with their activities, or if he’s up to something else...and whether or not that’s going to be a good thing for the rest of them. Despite her desire to reconnect with her roots, something he could help her with, she’s skittish of him and tries not to let-on how hungry she is for his stories. Molly Weasley -- there is something about the older wix that simultaneously draws Cissy in and repulses her; maybe it’s because she seems a little too “mothering” and Cissy is too old for that nonsense, or maybe it’s because she worries about how well Molly and Bella get along. It’s been just the three of them for so long that seeing Bella make friends outside the trio of their sisterhood makes Cissy feel antsy.

LIFESTYLE: The Black sisters have no fixed abode. Sometimes they stay in one place for months and sometimes they move on after only a few weeks or even mere days – whenever they feel too many eyes on them, or they're planning an anti-Muggle action that requires a different location. Mostly they stick to cities or the larger villages where it is easier for strangers to disappear into the crowd, favoring London most of all; their home may be gone but there’s still comfort to be found in sticking close to familiar ground. They vary between squatting in abandoned or empty buildings without detection or bewitching Muggles into involuntarily sharing their homes with them. Recently they have been crashing a fair amount at their uncle Vihaan’s, although only for short spurts. They get funds mostly by stealing: bewitching Muggles, breaking into their homes and businesses, or even straight-up mugging them. Narcissa is particularly good at looking harmless and helpless and will happily lure good samaritans down dark alleys and into danger. [will add more and/or adjust details based on discussion with Bellatrix and Andromeda’s players]

PERSONALITY: Brusque - all the pretty manners and coy banter of her childhood have been abandoned; now Cissy is coarse and blunt and brutally forthright in her conversation. She has no hesitation in sharing exactly what she thinks of people when she finds them lacking in some vital quality and has traded backhanded compliments for straight-up insults. Stupidity is something she has particularly little patience for (and potential hypocrisy does not deter her tongue). Which is not to say that she abstains from sarcasm or sardonic retorts -- but her verbiage is more biting than nuanced. Wiley - she’s not as naturally manipulative as she might be if she was more practiced with honeyed words, but she’s still quite cunning and sly. While Cissy leaves the big planning to her oldest sister most of the time, she’s very good at the little details. She has sharp eyes and sharp wits and she’s good at spotting weaknesses (both actual, in people and places; and emotional, in individuals or groups) and at pushing people’s buttons -- either to twist them up into ultimately doing what she wants, or just for the sake of inspiring an emotional lashing-out for her own amusement. She has so few hobbies left, after all... Devoted - to the point of self-detriment; Cissy is loyal unto death and beyond to those who have her heart. At the moment that list is short, containing only her sisters, but she was always raised to think that family was the most important thing in the world so that should surprise no one. She will stubbornly overlook flaws, faults, or even outright facts that contradict what she wants to believe about the people she loves (and in turn, is very good at ignoring the good points of those she hates or despises) and will stand by them no matter what. This can leave her in an awkward position when her sisters disagree about something, but so far she has mostly sided with Bellatrix about things; it’s Bella who kept them alive after all so surely she knows better, no? Cynical - how can anyone not be in a world like this? Being eleven when it all went down left Narcissa in the position of being old enough to understand what was happening and much of the reasoning why, but still young enough that she was completely unjaded about the world yet. Obviously that has changed dramatically, and the lesson was a hard one to learn so thoroughly and abruptly; it has left her cynical and suspicious, doubting the motives and reliability of just about everyone she meets. She doesn’t trust easily (although she isn’t as experienced as she likes to think she is, and probably would not see a proper betrayal coming if it was done with any subtlety; she’s not jaded enough to guard herself properly, she just thinks she is). Vicious - blood, vengeance, justice; call it what you want, Narcissa wants the Muggle world to burn for what it did to her and her family, and she’ll go to any lengths to see that happen. Maybe she lacks some of Bella’s innate talent for causing destruction, but she’s proved to be a quick study and she embraced the lessons wholeheartedly. While the impetus for a particularly blood-thirsty statement or act is more often Bella than not, Cissy is always quick to back her big sister up and to join in on the action. Getting to hurt those who’ve hurt her makes it all feel a little bit better; it doesn’t balance the scales but it helps soothe the wounds. Insecure - she knows that she is not the witch she ought to be; knows that her lack of proper education is a liability. In many ways she feels like a liability overall: the youngest, the shortest, the least educated of her sisters. She worries about what they think of her, worries that they -- and other allies -- doubt her abilities; she doubts her abilities. Flashes of arrogance blot this out on occasion (especially when she gets angry) but more often than not Cissy’s biggest enemy is herself because she undermines her own ability by second-guessing herself.

SKILLS/WEAKNESSES: Most of Narcissa’s magical skills were learned through a combination of tutoring from her older sisters, trying-out old spells and curses they worked-out for themselves (with varying results) from books taken from their home before it was destroyed, and occasional instruction from other allies (i.e. Dolohov). As such her education was sporadic and haphazard and her skill levels in one area, or even with one particular spell over another, do not necessarily have any bearing on another. The way different fields of magic relate to and feed off of one another is an area in which she is especially weak as she never had any comprehensive magical education and her basic/novice instruction was all from her older sisters who were only half-taught themselves. [+] destruction magic - her technique is not as polished or refined as a proper education would have produced, but her spells combine power with enthusiasm for explosive and brutal results. This is one form of magic she has practiced a lot, but not as much as she would like to have done...yet. Her skills in this area vary wildly, demonstrating expertise with difficult, advanced, esoteric magic (such as some very nasty stuff learned from the family books and from Dolohov) while simultaneously being lacking in some of the more basic spells. [+] deceit - while she has refined her technique somewhat with practice, Narcissa is a fine natural liar. In fact she often does better when she isn’t thinking about “how to lie” because then she gets hung-up on second-guessing herself, particularly when trying to convince someone she’s knowledgeable about Muggle things (because part of her doesn’t want to admit how much she’s learned about them and subconsciously self-sabotages, especially if her sisters are listening). When tossing out untruths off-the-cuff she is exceptionally convincing and sometimes even flagrant lies can pass unnoticed for a few crucial seconds, so forthright does she appear to be. Her appearance -- harmless little blonde thing -- doesn’t hurt, as long as she doesn’t let her face slip into too honest of an expression of her feelings. [+] fighting - she is not a trained hand-to-hand fighter but she has picked up a few tricks over the years, enough to surprise people who look at a scrawny, pretty girl and presume she wouldn’t even know how to make a fist without breaking her thumb...but not enough to hold her own in any serious fight. Her biggest strength in physical confrontations is her viciousness: she won’t hesitate to fight dirty, biting and gouging and clawing, and there her slighter size is to her advantage because if she can get in under someone’s guard she comes off as more of a wildcat than a girl. The fact that she thinks Muggles are “little better than animals” helps, because it means she doesn’t have any reason to hesitate due to “basic human decency” -- because they deserve none. She’ll maim without a second thought and while she lacks the skill and technique that would make her capable of killing someone with her bare hands, it’s not moral compunctions that would get in her way. [+/-] obsessiveness - once she fixates on an idea or a skill, she rarely turns away until she has mastered it; when learning a new spell that she enjoys or deems particularly useful she will practice it obsessively. She is insecure about her lack of education and hopes this will compensate; in many ways it does but it can also undermine her confidence more, and thus her abilities, because if she feels she hasn’t spent enough time practicing she is reluctant to try a spell (or other skill) in the field. [+/-] potioneering - while she has had little training in the art, and has but meager and irregular access to suitable ingredients, Cissy does have a knack for brewing; she has the focus and patience required to pull off decent potions, if little of the innate understanding required for true brilliance. Lack of materials undercuts this talent as well because she doesn’t know enough to even begin to properly attempt a substitute for missing ingredients so her success rate is low -- but not due to lack of inclination. [+/-] muggle-passing - she was only eleven when she entered the Muggle world so she acclimatized relatively well; in fact she acclimatized better than she wishes she had, because it feels disloyal whenever she does something “Muggle-ish” properly, so she undercuts her own ability to “pass” as a Muggle (both consciously and unconsciously) especially when she’s in front of her sisters, whom she worries she’ll disappoint (yet at the same time, knows that she is causing them problems when she mucks-up and doesn’t pull it off). When she isn’t thinking about it, isn’t second-guessing herself, she does pretty well...although she can still be tripped-up by facts or assumptions or biases she’s unaware of. Living on the outskirts of Muggle society isn’t the same as growing-up immersed within its socially-acceptable borders. [-] charisma - on the surface Cissy appears to be a charming girl who ought to be vivacious and popular...but she isn’t very good at hiding her true mood or feelings about someone; she often comes across as cold, sullen, or even angry when she’s talking to someone she doesn’t want to converse with. When she puts her mind to it she can charm to a certain extent (relying largely on the assumptions people make about her based on her appearance i.e. “sweet harmless young blonde thing”) and she does best when no one she knows is watching her attempts to insinuate herself with her target because that makes her self-conscious. Then she gets too caught-up in worrying about what they think about her to do what she needs to in order to get the target to think what she wants. [-] transfiguration - one of the branches of magic that requires the most precise understanding of its nature for proper execution, this is thus perhaps the type of magic which she is weakest at; even when a transfiguration spell is presented to her in detail she has a hard time mastering it because she has few basics in the area to fall back on. Even when she does seem to pull-off a spell properly at first it often wobbles, wavers, and reverts to original form because she hasn’t affected anything more than “surface level” magic. Her frustration at her lack of talent often leads her to declare the whole branch of magic to be needlessly complicated and stuffy, a defense-mechanism to avoid having to admit that hte problem is her (but she knows it is). [-] healing - something else she lacks the basic foundation for, Healing Spells are difficult for Cissy; sometimes she can’t even pull-off a basic episkey let alone anything more complex. This is an area in which she is slowly getting better through practice, but it is a slow improvement that she herself often doubts is really happening. [-] apparition - a skill she never mastered, Cissy is lucky that she never did any permanent damage to herself with splinching; now she does not even try to Apparate, finding it too risky. In fact quick escapes are not something she is good at in general; while she is adept at sprinting she lacks the endurance necessary for long runs. She is good at climbing and scrambling and hiding, because she had to learn to be in order to escape and evade detection from Muggle authorities, but she knows that Apparition would be of great use if only she dared to figure out how to do it. Known Terrorist: the Ministry for Magical Investigation has her name and a few grainy photos taken off security footage when she was sloppy; it means they know who she is, and roughly what she looks like, but they don’t know who she is because all they know of the Black family comes via interrogations of other wix and reports from their Squib allies. In some ways it makes them sound more dangerous than they really are and in others less -- because they were just children. Just little girls. Little girls shouldn’t be able to cause so much damage...but they have, and that keeps the Witch Hunters wondering and worrying: are they really just dealing with three girls? Or is there something -- someone -- more behind the Black sisters? And which of those options is scarier? General Value: When it comes to planning and plotting, Cissy is invaluable: she has an eye for weak spots and the twisted mind necessary for exploiting them (even at great collateral cost). She is useful in a fight, if volatile and thus somewhat risky to have at one’s side; since so much of her magical strength lies in her sense of grievance she can easily tip over the edge into reckless and dangerous anger. Her spotty magical education can also be problematic although she largely compensates by excessive practice; overall she is more of a boon than a liability but it’s also a good thing that she has her big sisters looking after her to cover for any weaknesses or slip-ups. She isn’t truly equipped for serious solo actions yet, although she insists that she could manage them just fine.

HISTORY: As the youngest child of Cygnus Black and Druella Rosier, Narcissa had a pampered and sheltered childhood (especially when she was the heir, although even after she forfeited that position she was still coddled). She spent most of it trying to keep up with her older sisters, whom she adored and whose footsteps she expected to follow-in to Hogwarts and beyond, but before she could her world collapsed in flames. She and her sisters escaped the London Cleansing and went on the run, living off scraps and the rudimentary magic that Bella and Dromeda had learned from their brief education at Hogwarts. It wasn’t long before they started lashing-out too, at first with no planning and lots of raw emotion and then with purposeful, deliberate action. Their guerilla fighting was largely self-taught and amateurish and they made several mistakes along the way -- fortunately none fatal -- but enough so that both Bella and Cissy are now known to the Muggle authorities as wixen terrorists. That has done nothing to curb their desire to fight and they are now on the cusp of actually forming a proper resistance organization -- something that Narcissa is both hesitant about and eager for. [additional details to be decided upon in conjunction with Bellatrix/Andromeda players]

GOALS: Narcissa wants to tear the whole Muggle world down, burn it to ashes, and rebuild magical society upon its broken corpse. On a more personal level, she wants to keep what is left of her family safe; she refuses to lose anyone else she cares about and will go to extremes to keep them safe -- or to extract her vengeance. There are few if any lines of violence that she won’t cross to achieve either of these ends and while she likes to think that she is above collaborating with the filth who destroyed her world, if push came to shove she would sell out anyone else if that’s what it took to save her sisters.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW AND WHERE ARE THEY GOING?

PLANS: I’ll probably be on board with just about any idea, so please don’t be afraid to throw them at me when they cross your mind, even (especially!) the wild and outlandish ones! If it’s off-the-wall, I will almost surely be up for it! Anyway, here are a few things I’ve already got in mind to potentially explore with Narcissa: Resistance: I think it would be interesting, since several of the characters are on the cusp of forming an actual organization to work together, to put Narcissa and Bellatrix on opposite sides of whether or not it’s a good idea to gather allies and risk trusting other people and thus be able to take larger action and maybe actually do enough to change things instead of just lashing-out etc etc...and since I can see motivation for either choice that would make sense for Cissy to follow, I would prefer to wait and see where Bella (and/or Andromeda) come down on the issue and place Cissy on the other side, force the sisters to disagree and argue and try to hash the pros/cons out instead of her just blindly following Bella’s lead (which has largely been her course so far). And it’s not Cissy couldn’t lash-out on her own, regardless of other characters’ actions or choices or the resistance overall; she can easily be used to incite action of any anti-Muggle sort, and to draw (willingly or otherwise) any other characters into that fray. Soloing: she’s really not ready to be on her own, but she thinks she is (wants to prove to her big sisters that she’s as competent and reliable as they are) and as of late, has been arguing that she’s an adult now and can be trusted to do things on her own more often. Whether because she’s been granted that chance on purpose, has taken matters into her own hands, or has been separated from the others through mischance, throwing her out into the cold cruel world without the safety net of Bella and Dromeda would likely be a harsh wake-up for Cissy...or might alternatively give her a chance to discover more of who she is without the influence of her sisters at immediate hand. She has definitely taken more after Bellatrix than she has Andromeda in this world, so giving her cause to take the time to examine her sisters more objectively (maybe she should be worried about Bella; maybe Dromeda does have a point about their level of brutality; etc) would also likely create interesting character directions (both for Narcissa and for her relationships with her sisters ). [If extant in this game without her sisters being in play, this could be brought to the forefront: maybe a hit went wrong and they were separated, and Cissy is trying not to worry about her sisters-- because they’re surely together so there’s nothing to worry about -- and focusing on keeping things going herself so that when she eventually does find them again (surely there’s a good reason why they haven’t stopped by Uncle Vihaan’s to leave word; surely they haven’t been caught or killed -- the whole world would know if Bellatrix Black, terrorist, had been caught!) they’ll be impressed with how well she’s done, etc...] Collaborating: it’s a word Cissy would say with a vile sneer, thinking that any wix who would even dream of working with the filthy Muggles deserves nothing less than a painful death -- but she’s never been put in a situation where she had to make a difficult choice between loyalties. Confronting her with that idea -- either through placing her in that situation, forcing her to offer aide to the enemy in exchange for her sisters’ safety, or by introducing her to someone who has made such a devil’s bargain before and forcing her to slowly understand their point of view and reasoning -- would cause her lots of consternation, and maybe even force her to confront her own habits of judgement and hypocrisy. It would also be interesting from a strictly logistical standpoint, because even in canon the Black family were always extremists (prone to “pruning the family tree” and so forth) so how does that translate to having to work with allies who might have or allow more shades of gray in their lives? Muggles Are People Too--Really? would be a fun idea to explore, because Narcissa has hardly stopped to think about the fact that the people she’s hurting and sometimes even killing are people -- because to her they really aren’t, yet. She comes from a childhood and a family that thought of Muggles are barbaric animals, so it wasn’t hard at all for her to carry that prejudice with her out into the Muggle world, especially after they did so many terrible things to the wix and world she knew and loved. Even being surrounded by them, learning to pass among them, learning to live among them -- it still hasn’t penetrated; she’s done a good job of compartmentalizing reality to avoid the sort of self-reflection and world-awareness that would upend the bigoted ideals she was taught in childhood. (Yes, clearly they’re more intelligent than they were taught as kids...but they’re still animals just look what they did! Yes, clearly they have a few basic feelings and emotions and ostensibly care about their own families...but they’re still monsters just look how fast they turn on their own children when they’re revealed to be wix! Yes, clearly Muggle-borns are still wix and they have Muggles for parents and siblings...but it’s different all right???) Cissy hasn’t really confronted the idea that she’s killed people yet, honestly...because they’re only Muggles. Forcing her to acknowledge that they’re still human would be an interesting thread (and would probably take more than one, because she went from toujurs pur to radicalized freedom fighter/terrorist so it’s not a heel-turn that will happen in a hurry, but would be fun to tease-out as a slowly-growing sub-line for a while). Transitioning: while Cissy is comfortable with who she is and how she presents, and never really felt much body dysphoria to begin with (coming from a family known for pride and arrogance helped), she knows that among all the commonplace magic that was lost when the Muggles took over were spells and potions that were often used by people in her circumstances; she had been using a few herself before everything collapsed, and she had been anticipating using more when she actually reached adolescence -- but couldn’t, because there was no way to get them then. While it’s a low priority, she is curious about those magics, and would be intrigued by any opportunity to learn more about them or especially by the chance to sample them. It’s not something that’s likely to come up in game unless she meets an older wix who is familiar with those magicks, but they -- and Cissy’s reaction to the chance to try them -- would be an interesting plotline to explore. Also on that note, she very well may not be aware of the level of prejudice that transgender people face in the Muggle world of Britain in the 1970s because of course we’re so much better now uh huh and honestly she may not even know the Muggle terminology applicable to herself -- because when would that come up in conversations about how to undermine and overthrow and explode Muggle society? -- so there’s potential to explore issues such as gender roles, presentation, and identity via her interactions (although any such threads would doubtless require heavy trigger tagging). As someone who isn’t entirely sure where she falls on the gender spectrum herself, I’ve always found such topics interesting and would gladly play around with them with anyone who feels likewise (and is unlikely to find said exploration hurtful; again I’ll definitely tag any such threads for triggering content regardless of what the trigger list mandates).

INTEREST: The game I built; I chose to play Narcissa because I thought that she hit a good balance with the rest of the currently active/desired characters: as the youngest Black sister she is an active part of the most active and violent part of the magical resistance, but she is not in charge of anything. This puts her in a good position to incite action among, and disperse information to, the other characters without feeling potentially overpowering (as I fear Bellatrix would were she in the hands of an admin). I wanted a character who had enough connection to the vanished magical world, and to current events, to be able to impart both old and new data without being totally mired in what came before in a way that might feel like I was trying to take too much control over things. In the end I decided that Narcissa fit that role the best, and furthermore created direct connections between the Black family which was useful as other of her relatives were already in play. Speaking more personally, I have played Narcissa before and am looking forward to diverting so dramatically from the usual cultured, refined, and poised character that she is both in canon and in most alternate universes as well. This Cissy is going to be a very different sort of wix, yet the base of who she was is still somewhere in there and the balance between those two aspects should be a lot of fun to find.

In closing let me say again, I am very open to making changes and adjustments to incorporate other headcanons and alternative interpretations so if you want to plot or brainstorm or just compare notes, please don’t hesitate to come and chat!