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#the blood red corn snake gets way bigger anyways also
alternislatronemhq · 4 years
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Congrats, EMILIA, you have been accepted to AL for the role of OC OPHELIA ROWLE (FC: Imaan Hammam). Ahhh, wow, Emilia, I absolutely adore Ophelia already! Your application was wonderful and you’ve built an incredible character. I can’t wait to see her come to life in the midst of our plot! Your writing was absolutely beautiful and I’m delighted that you’re joining us!! Please send in your blog (no sideblogs for first characters, please) in the next 24 hours and be sure to take a look at our new player checklist. Welcome home (once again), we’re so excited to have you join the family!
OOC
name — Emilia age — 19 pronouns — She/ Her timezone — EST activity level — As of now I have a lot of free time and can be very active, especially on weekends.
IC Overview
name — Ophelia Rowle faceclaim — Imaan Hammam, Jessica Parker Kennedy, or Rania Benchegra age — 26 gender — Female sexuality — Bisexual
patronus — A coyote.  Just like her patronus, Ophelia could be dropped just about anywhere and find a way to make it out on top. And yet, also like the coyote, Ophelia is often misunderstood and painted as a villain.
boggart — She despises the fact that it’s her mother. Then again, a shiver still runs up her spine every time she thinks about that woman. She can never forget how her voice boomed like thunder when she was angry, nor the sound of glass shattering when thrown against a wall. Ophelia sees all the qualities she hates in herself stem from her.
IC In Depth
personality traits —
+Resourceful
Ophelia finds a way to get things done. She uses quick wit to evaluate situations; to puzzle together the bigger picture and see things for how they are and how they could be.
+Industrious
When Ophelia works towards a goal, she’ll be damned before she allows someone to stand in her way. Years of having her ambitions trampled on by her father in favor of her older brother have left her diligent and downright ruthless in order to get what she desires.
- Guarded
Ophelia resembles a bear trap: get too close and she’ll snap shut, but not without taking a piece of you with her. She finds comfort within the walls she’s built up, careful not to let anyone inside. She’ll inevitably disappoint them, anyway.
- No Self-Esteem
Nothing she does is ever good enough. Ophelia tends to push herself to the absolute limit in order to prove her worth, but it will never satisfy her. She has to do her best, to be the best and she cannot accept that she’s only human. It’s only a matter of time before she breaks.
character biography —
Born in Louisiana, her earliest memories were dotted with the warmth of the summer sun and only contrasted with the polar blue of her mother’s eyes and the chill of her father’s indifference. By the time she’s five, Ophelia’s all too familiar with the metallic taste of blood in her mouth from biting her tongue too hard. Pureblood girls should be seen rather than heard, according to her mother. One off hand comment about thinking marriage is ‘icky’ and Ophelia winds up jinxed with a mouthful of soap bubbles. A life long aversion to the pink-speckled Bertie Bott jelly bean and a reluctance to argue with her mother follows. She has three older siblings, only her brother Otto makes time for her.
At eleven she stands dead-center of a gordian knot. Ophelia stares back at the four statues in front of her, insides fluttering. The whole school is looking at her from the balcony and the dark wood paneling of the entrance hall feels as though it’s closing in. She looks up to the balcony, and there he is. Her brother’s smile is crooked and good-natured. Two statues move forward: Wampus, who favors warriors and Horned Serpent, who favors scholars. Ophelia will later wonder how her life would have been different if she had joined Wampus. Either way, she prospered in Horned Serpent, her keen mind soaking up all she could get her hands on to read. Ophelia’s grades were outstanding, but it wasn’t enough. The best and only the best was all she would accept. Anything less was a failure.  Ilvermorny became her home; a place where she could flourish. She was safe behind the castle walls, even as whispers of war sailed in from across the Atlantic.
She’s fifteen when Otto is disowned. His smile was still crooked as he cursed their family name with a mouthful of blood. Ophelia watched from afar with her other siblings as her mother’s silvery voice contorted into a roar more akin to a Hungarian Horntail than a five-foot-two woman. She flinches whenever an impossibly straight red jet of light hits the young man in the chest. He goes down with a cry of unbearable pain and Ophelia’s mind drifts to Christmas, only three days away. She’s always loved the holiday. With the twinkling lights and the annual parties, or when their family tolerates each other long enough to sit at a family dinner. Now, all she sees is her brother begging for mercy on the floor. She doesn’t like the holiday season after that ever again.
England is foreign to her. The craggy cliffs of Dorset where her cousins reside are so far away from the muddy Mississippi River. But she steels herself and pulls through because that’s what she has to do. Her aunt and uncle talk about their Dark Lord with all the fervor of the religious zealots back home. He’s a messiah in their eyes, giving their hatred for no maj-borns a platform. Ophelia hears him speak at a party a few days before she turns sixteen. He’s charismatic, she’ll give him that, but there’s something about him that makes her want to turn tail and run for the hills. At Hogwarts she’s sorted into her second house with a snake as its mascot. Slytherin house is not as warm as Horned Serpent, and it is not her home. More than often she finds it hard to sleep in that cold, damp dungeon. But this is her life now, and she adapts. For the next two years she claws her way to academic success, but stays notoriously aloof to her fellow peers. There are times she feels as though there is something wrong with her. She feels empty inside, as if someone took a melon baller and scooped out everything good about her.
She doesn’t return to America when she graduates. War gives her reasons to burn bridges, makes it easier for her to claim, ‘oh, I’m busy’ and move on with her day. Ophelia gets her training as an auror and right off the bat her family disapproves. It goes against her childhood teachings of ‘seen, not heard,’ and arguments are futile. No matter how many times she claims it’s to get a foothold in the Ministry, her family finds it a waste of her time. She could do much more as a servant to the Dark Lord (by this time his name has become synonymous with the taste of bile and a retch of disgust). It’s too late anyways, Ophelia already has her mind set and by God she’d like to see them try and stop her. She will be the servant of no one, thank you very much. Her outlook on the Order isn’t much better, though. So what if they get rid of Voldemort? There will be another like him. And another after that, and so on and so forth. Maybe she’s just a cynic, but history continues to prove her right. What makes this time different? Not a goddamn thing. But there’s a part of her that wants them to prove her wrong— a first in her life, given she hates being wrong. The part of her who remembers her brother smiling with a mouthful of blood in a final act of defiance. Because Ophelia is cynical enough to know there will always be another Dark Lord, but the determined bit of hope left in her heart knows there will always be more willing to fight against him. Will she be one of them?
plot ideas — 
I think Ophelia needs someone to see through her air of indifference. She needs someone to prove to her there’s much more to life than power and control. It doesn’t matter whether it’s romantic or platonic, she just needs someone she can trust. She’s set such unrealistic standards for herself that she’s completely convinced that she’s not good enough. It’d be interesting to see how she could react to someone accepting her flaws and all… or at least calling her out on her bullshit.
Something steeped in political intrigue is right up her alley. Perhaps something sways her from her neutral position and she gets wrapped up in it. Maybe one side offers her something she desires or the other twists her arm into helping them. Even if it’s something as simple (and potentially hilarious) as sleazing it up with people in high positions of power, I really think she’d thrive in that kind of situation.
extra —
Headcannons
She’s never been in a serious relationship before besides a few noncommittal flings. Ophelia’s never really been good at keeping friends, either, because she holds them at such a far distance. She turns into a bumbling mess when it comes to talking about feelings.
Ophelia, unlike her family, doesn’t give a damn about blood politics. She only values hard work and intelligence in others.
Despite being in not one, but two houses with serpents as their mascots, Ophelia’s actually terrified of snakes. When she was a toddler, her oldest brother tossed a corn snake into her cradle and she’s hated the things ever since.
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