Unnerving and alluring, Viola’s pale, impassive face has the dual quality of holding you at arm’s length and encouraging you to take just one step closer. Her grey eyes are curious, watchful, and worn, often underlined by deep purple. She maintains a menacing stillness in her physicality that suggests she’s poised to strike rather than remain inert. It’s difficult to be at ease around her.
HOW SHE PRESENTS HERSELFViola stands alone, at the edge of a party, watching everything that’s going on. She's observant and quiet, her face betraying little of what she's thinking. She has the good fortune of being a petite, pretty, whisp of a girl, so instead of coming off as creepy or socially awkward, she projects an air of mystery, intrigue, and aloofness. If you ask her a question she doesn't want to answer, you'll be met with a stare. She often carries a neat, svelte bag with a book, her journal, and a pen. She won't dig into it in public but keeps it with her in case she chooses to sneak away. And she's always sneaking away.
HOW SHE THINKSAt your elbow one moment and vanished into thin air the next, Viola wavers between yearning to be seen and certainty that she is invisible, at least in the ways that matter. While she is aware that people tend to find her attractive and magnetic, she thinks that people's perceptions of her stop there. As long as she remains pretty, prim, and quiet, no one really cares about what's going on inside her head. She feels alone with her darkest impulses. She is deeply critical of herself and acutely aware of her own naivety, intensity, and callousness. Sensitive, self-analytical, and serious, Viola is very rarely at ease in her own body and mind. She gets stuck in mental ruts, analyzing her own motivations, outcomes, and impacts and hypothesizing wildly about the motivations of others. Habitually, she finds the worst in everything and becomes hyperfocused on the macabre. She finds herself lying awake at night thinking about bridge collapses and what she would do if she was marooned on a raft in the middle of the ocean.
Viola often feels detached from the realities of her own life. She'll blink herself back from one of these dark reveries to find that she's missed large swaths of time. She doesn't understand her cheery peers or experience their simple pleasures. While she is a poster child for melancholy, she is, at least, optimistic in her belief that she is simply detached from a pleasant, meaningful world rather than believing that life itself is meaningless.
HOW SHE BEHAVESViola is obsessed with examining her own mind and pursues interactions where she can delve deeply into her own thoughts. Sometimes that means she retreats to the edges of parties in order to hear herself think but, ideally, she doesn't want to be alone with herself. She abhors small talk but is constantly seeking someone who connects with her deeply and, in this pursuit, tends to be a chronic oversharer. No topic is off-limits. There's an urgency in her need to connect and be understood, leading Viola to throw herself at people with wanton abandon.
She's a sensual kiss girl -- she kisses with meaning and feeling. She doesn't "smooch," and she doesn't kiss people who call it "smooching." She tends to have intense physical and romantic encounters. She's in constant pursuit of the strongest possible chance of being seen and understood. Which also means these pairings can be short-lived. She'll breathlessly chase her feelings as they lead her from one person to the next.
She doesn't intend for these encounters to be short-lived. It's just that she quickly finds that the initial spark and body-high from a physical attraction doesn't translate to real connection. She's not the friends-with-benefits type, but she does have a tendency to repeatedly get sucked into trysts that she then retreats from.
She's remorseless about other's hurt feelings. If she doesn't feel a connection (romantic or platonic) then why is the other person continuing to pursue it? She's just realized before they have. She thinks most people live their lives unexamined.
WHAT MOTIVATES HERCuriosity and passion are the two foundational motivators in Viola's life. She thirsts for self-understanding and her subjective truth. She wants to understand how her classmates can be so ceaselessly excitable and hopes she can find that for herself. More than anything, she just wants to
feel something.
Sometimes she takes short cuts in her pursuit of these things—lazy self-examination, mindless chattering about 'deep' things, physical thrills, and carnal delights—but is most driven when she touches on
real perception and purpose. She feels closest to finding herself when she is writing or creating and performing music.
Still, even at her most fulfilled, Viola feels miles away from really understanding herself or the world around her, which is why she is so interested in ghosts. She thinks there must be some insight that they can lend about what the purpose of all of this is. She practices spiritualism, loosely. She's curious about it historically but also communicates with the ghosts in her own life. She thinks ghosts can provide her with knowledge about what she and others are meant to be doing on this Earth.
FUN FACTS:* Viola maintains a slight southern Welsh accent, particularly apparent in her tapped Rs. The glides on her vowel sounds aren't extreme but her speaking voice is distinctly 'sing-song.'
* Viola is a vegetarian.
* Enneagram Type:
4w5.
* Viola is the lead vocals in a band with
Uriah on guitar/backup vocals,
Aristotle on drums, [unknown] on bass, [unknown] on ???, [unknown] on ???. Their style is crunchy garage rock with a little blues and country influence.
* Her personal vocal style and solo act is more aligned with sad, bluesy folk.
*
Things Acquired in Game: Mystery Potion, Mysterious Journal, Crow Poetry, Post-Mortem Photography Book,
Peckenpaugh Yearbooks,
a box full of protective items LANGUAGES: English, a little Welsh, and a little French.
HOBBIES: Having her tarot read, listening to music, singing, performing, reading novels, contemplating the afterlife, reading about spiritualism, overthinking, observing people, journaling, writing poetry, lyrics, and short stories, gardening, cooking what she grows, lurking at the edges of parties, going on long, solitary, twilight walks.
SKILLS:MUSIC: Viola comes from a long line of musicians and people in the music industry. She was forced to take up piano at a young age and study music theory when she got a little older. She had a private voice coach growing up. Her home is constantly filled with music and her parents continue to hold Chamber Music concerts in an attached, renovated studio on the estate. Honestly, she's a bit of a music snob. She dropped out of Music class after freshmen year when she found out that she would have to join the Concert or Marching band.
She plays multiple instruments, including acoustic guitar, mandolin, and piano, and has a vibrant, heartbreaking
voice.CREATIVE WRITING: Her skill derives from a deep love of writing rather than any natural talent. She spends a lot of time journaling, reading poetry and short stories, and writing song lyrics. She is an active member of Creative Writing Club and is unafraid to pour out her heart and soul onto a page.
DIVINATION: Hindsight is 20/20 when it comes to Viola's divination skills. The predictions she puts to paper via automatic writing regularly manifest but she often misinterprets what the words she jots down actually mean until after the event has very clearly presented itself. Same with tarot spreads and other forms of divination. It's a confidence issue.
GREEN THUMB: Despite growing up on an estate in the heart of a daffodil field with a whole family of floral named girls, Viola actually prefers to tend fruits and vegetables. She finds gardening soothing and is talented at it mostly because she is willing to put in the hours of quiet tending that gardening requires. The earth to life connection feels important to her.
COOKING: Viola grew up eating very fancy food and really enjoys eating, so she took an interest in learning to cook at a young age. She understands cooking techniques, gastronomy, and has a refined palate. She loves to cook what she grows.
FAMILY:CELESTINA WARBECK, The Singing Sorceress, paternal great-grandmother.
AURORA WARBECK, a ghost (d. 2008), paternal great-grandaunt.
IDRIS WARBECK, music producer, paternal grandfather.
LEOLIN WARBECK, money manager, father.
REINE WARBECK née DESJARDINS, celebrity wedding planner, mother.
ASTER WARBECK, older sister, 19. Studying art history in Cambridge.
SAGE WARBECK, younger sister, 16. Attends an all-girls private school in Connecticut.
BACKGROUND:Leolin Warbeck met Reine Desjardins at a dinner party during holiday in Nice. She was engaged to the party's host at the time but Leolin was undeterred. He extended his trip for one week, then another, and by Wednesday of the third week he had convinced Reine to leave her fiancé, pick up her life, and move it to the quiet seaside town of Tenby, South Wales.
They married in a garishly expensive ceremony just five months later. Their relationship remained erratic and slapdash, even as they began to form their little family. Aster came first, then Viola and Sage in quick succession—all unplanned. Leolin and Reine continued on with their whirlwind romance, staying out late and disappearing on weekend trips, leaving the girls in the care of Leolin's aging grandaunt, Aurora Warbeck.
Like her famous sister, Aurora was musically talented and passed the hours with Aster, Viola, and Sage singing, dancing, and creating music. Viola has very fond memories of this time in her life. She was and is exceptionally close to her grandaunt, who passed in 2008 but remains in Tenby as a ghost.
Much to Viola's dismay, her father moved the family to New York City when she was seven. The Warbecks lobbied to bring their spectral nanny with them but Aurora was not permitted to leave her haunt in Tenby. All the girls were devastated to leave behind their grandaunt, but none so much as Viola. She was miserable in New York and marks coming to America as the cause of her decade long bout of melancholy, though its perhaps more correlation than causation.
The Warbeck daughters took a page from their parents' book of theatrics and rebelled against the move spectacularly. Leolin and Reine tried to soak up their daughter's collective misery by overloading them with activities—ballet lessons, vocal lessons, piano lessons, French lessons, ice skating, painting, gardening, anything—but they found ways to revolt. Aster kept cutting other children's' hair, Sage regularly held her breath until she passed out, and Viola liked to 'hide' for worryingly long periods. Worst of all, they continuously 'ran away' from their Madison Avenue apartment and hid in Central Park for hours. On more than one occasion they had to be returned to their parents by Hitwizards. Fed up, the Warbecks moved to a neo-Georgian mansion in Mianus River State Park along the border of Greenwich-Stramford, Connecticut in 2010.
The estate is home to thousands of daffodils, a Chamber Music studio, and the ghost of
Libby Holman. In an effort to preserve the historic property and keep No-maj away from Holman's tempestuous ghost, the grounds are shielded by heavy barrier and muggle-repelling charms. This served the dual purpose of allowing the Warbecks to sequester away their three unruly daughters.
Aster, Sage, and Viola received private tutoring on through middle school. They essentially received private parenting, as well. Leolin continued to commute to New York City for work and often stayed long into the night to play cards at an exclusive club with other men of means. And while Reine stayed with the girls at the estate, she was busy with her newly booming wedding planning business and had little time for motherly duties. The girls were brought up by their tutors and housekeeper.
With her parents too preoccupied to be annoyed, Viola found quieter ways to show her discontent. She simply sunk into the doldrums and proceeded through her tweens robotically. Aster was showing signs of premature promiscuity and Sage was a downright bully, so the adults in her life largely left Viola alone in order to put out larger fires. That suited Viola fine. She studied hard, taking interest in literature and art, and continued to make music. She also developed a strong friendship with the ghost of Libby Holman and in her early tweens took up the study of spiritualism, as well as divination, in an attempt to better understand her confusing but enthralling roommate.
At thirteen, Viola was given the opportunity to choose the boarding school she would be attending for highschool and spent months pouring over her options. Peckenpaugh was a strange choice but Viola insisted to her parents that she had really thought it through. She yearned for adventure after being locked away at Treetops estate for years and the idea of returning to the city gave her the chills. She liked the homey, smalltown feel of Elflock Falls and the quiet, mysterious woods surrounding Peckenpaugh. Plus, proximity to BoMB headquarters would allow her to continue developing her interest in spirits.
She was accepted without issue and sorted into Deeplurk. Viola absolutely does not get the small town athletic fervor and she still doesn't really get the whole Homecoming thing but she was able to slip easily into the background of life at Peckenpaugh. Though she doesn't understand the majority of her classmates, they do amuse her and she 'participates' in most extracurricular activities. Her grades are always agreeable and she causes little trouble, at least the kind that adults are aware of. Peckenpaugh has done little to improve Viola's listlessness over the years but she's quite content with her decision to spend high school in the mountains of West Virginia.
[I'll flesh this out more once I do wanted lines.] WAND: 10.5", Hazel wood,
Morgen hair. Viola's wand belonged to her great-grandaunt, Aurora Warbeck. Upon Aurora's death, the wand wilted and refused to perform magic, but was reawakened by Viola. It's a senstive wand that's prone to absorbing and expelling Viola's negative energy at will, but is capable of casting expectionally beautiful magic.
FAMILIAR: Viola can barely be trusted to keep herself alive.
CAREER GOALS: Viola's post-secondary plans are a source of constant anxiety for her. She waffles between wanting to pursue music, which she certainly has the means and connections to do, and a career in spirit research for the Bureau of Magical Beings. Or perhaps she'll do independent research? Or continue her schooling and get a degree in literature? Or maybe she'll just disappear into the woods and emerge a century later covered in moss, clutching a tome of poetry. She doesn't know and she would appreciate it if you didn't ask.
PART-TIME JOB: No need of one.
CLASSES:CHARMS (H): Viola likes words. She has a large vocabulary, an easy time memorizing spells, and does well on assignments that involve reading and writing. The poetic qualities of charmwork appeal to her, though her hazelwood wand sometimes refuses to perform magic if Viola isn't truly feeling the spirit of the spell. Joy based spells are difficult for her.
Her relationship with Ms. Gunzenhauser is pleasant and professional.
POTIONS: The explosions, mess, and chaos of potions are not appealing to Viola, at all. While Viola can competently brew potions, absorb lectures, and pass tests and presentations, she doesn't enjoy this class. It's not difficult for her, it's just annoying. She typically sits in the far back corner of the class and completes her work in total silence.
She finds Mr. Berzelius to be a tiresome tryhard.
TRANSFIGURATION: Viola understands the how of Transfiguration but not necessarily the why, though you would never know it. She studies extra hard, staying up late to memorize so that she can regurgitate the formulas and ace the tests, though it's slowly killing her. She pretends to really enjoy this class and will stay after to sweet talk Ms. Min. Unclear if this ruse will prove fruitful.
She doesn't relate to or understand Ms. Min's peppy personality.
CRYPTOZOOLOGY & MAGIZOOLOGY: This class is turning out to be a lot more useless than Viola had hoped. She signed up because she thought she ought to, just in case she does decide to pursue a career with the BoMB, after all. But there really isn't all that much information on spirits and there sure is a lot of group work, which Viola doesn't much enjoy. Her performance in this class wavers depending on the creatures being studied at the time and she doesn't try as hard to feign interest in this class as she does in her core classes.
Mr. Trullinger is sort of funny and Viola thinks he's alright, most days.
HERBOLOGY (H): A natural green thumb, Viola enjoys and performs well in Herbology. She finds that the grounded, rooted, hands-on nature of Herbology class takes her out of her own head and allows her a little space to decompress. She spends much of her free time in the greenhouse.
Like Ms. Treetops, Viola is an introvert who dislikes small talk yet enjoys company, so these two get along quite well. Though she doesn't always express it, Ms. Treetops is Viola's favorite teacher.
WIZARD LIT (H): Ms. Treetops might be Viola's favorite teacher, but Wizard Lit is her favorite class, by far. The opportunity to delve into her classmates' minds during discussion is the most valuable thing Peckenpaugh could offer her. She typically listens more than she speaks but when she does chime in, she has a tendency to overshare—no topic is off-limits and she's unafraid to bare her soul if she feels like people are actually listening. She never falls behind in readings, aces every quiz, and is a pretty talented writer.
Sometimes she wishes that Mr. Crockett would make her more gabby and superficial peers shut up but, overall, she likes him a lot and finds his presence comforting.
DIVINATION: When she was thirteen, Viola took up Automatic Writing as a bit of a lark but soon discovered a real knack for it. Automatic Writing is her preferred form of divination but she's open to practicing other techniques. The idea of predestination suggested by divination is reassuring to her.
She appreciates Dr. Huang's quiet energy and the freedom his class offers her.
EXTRA-CURRICULARS:CREATIVE WRITING CLUB: Viola attends both the book discussions and the writing workshops. She is much more outspoken during discussions in Creative Writing Club than she is during Wizard Lit. She can sometimes be downright rude if she disagrees with someone's interpretation or she suspects someone is talking thoughtlessly just to hear their own voice.
She writes short stories and poetry for writing workshops, both of which tend to have melancholic and more than vaguely pornographic undertones, so sorry about that.
CULINARY CLUB: Eating is one of the rare pleasures in life that Viola understands and experiences fully. She has a refined palate and expensive taste, so cafeteria food usually doesn't excite her and she's turned to cooking for herself. Once a week, she knows that she can make herself a decent meal and lose herself in the preparation. She's pretty selfish and doesn't like to share but isn't so rude as to flat out say no.
SORTING?: Viola stood in silence for an uncomfortably long time in front of each door, mind-whirring. If the doors were animate, they probably would have cleared their throats to break the tension, but fortunately for Viola she was allowed a magically manipulated
looooong time to think in peace. So, when the Deeplurk door illuminated for her in the Spring Room, she trusted that the Sorting Cave had weighed her honest, accurate answers and placed her correctly. While she has a touch of Wildgulch's creativity, Thorntrail's perfectionism, and more than her fair share of Mothgarden's curiosity, Deeplurk's value on personal identity defines Viola in many ways. She may not be sure yet exactly who she is but finding that out is the most important thing to her.
NAME: Colleen
EMAIL: See Player Contact Page
CDJ: ~optimistprime at IJ
OTHER CONTACT: Text me?
TIMEZONE: PST
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