it's just a flesh wound!

It was a sad thing, Nina thought, to be on one's own in an emergency room. To sit by one's lonesome in a hard wooden chair, back pressed up against someone else in a hard wooden chair, surrounded by the ill and wounded, and all the while holding a bandage to one's own head was a terrible fate. Of course as Nina had a concussion these thoughts were not at all coherent and she would, in all likelihood, not remember them in the morning. She didn't even really remember how it happened. Diagon Alley was a terrible place to be when a bomb exploded, Nina had discovered, and now the ringing in her ears recommended that she never go there again.

Nina had taken to drugging Sebastian's brandy with Dreamless Sleep potions to help him keep what he had left of his sanity, not that it seemed to do any good. Nevertheless it was something to try, and try Nina did. Because she had stopped making potions after fifth year, Nina could hardly make the thing herself, and she sent in an order by owl every two weeks and went to pick up the potion the next day. Just her luck that the one thing she needed to go to Diagon Alley for would bring her there when the place was being attacked.

Not being terribly wounded, Nina was forced to sit and wait, hoping that the smell of sweat and blood and vomit did not make her stomach roil more than it was already. She wanted to lean her head back, but someone was sitting in the chair up next to hers and that would be rude. Not to mention that she was not supposed to fall asleep, and any position resembling horizontal would knock her out immediately. She desperately wished for someone to entertain her and keep her conscious, but that was looking less and less likely by the moment. Nina resolved to count to infinity, but kept getting lost after four or five. It was an insurmountable task for a concussed person.

So she sat aching, rubbing at her bruised limbs and occasionally switching the hand that held the gauze by her hairline where a cut was still bleeding sluggishly. By chance a familiar face caught her eye and Nina was tempted to call for a healer, but she stopped. Telling someone that she was hallucinating would get her out of the emergency room, but it wasn't something she really wanted to be true. Still she kept her eyes fixed on the mirage's back, just to be sure. After all, keeping her focus that long would be a good thing for her.

would you like some manipulation with that?

Herbology had never been a favorite subject of Nina's, mostly because it involved a great deal of potting and re-potting, and Nina didn't have the patience required to do that with anything that wasn't trying to kill her. If something didn't hold her interest, she would just stop paying attention. Thankfully she didn't intend to continue herbology next year, and so an 'Acceptable' OWL would suit her just fine. What was unfortunate was that her determination not to continue with the subject didn't solve the immediate problem - which was that herbology was dreadfully boring. Even more so was the project that she was forced to undertake - magical agriculture. It was a long-term report on the agricultural community and what they grew - magical techniques for amplifying certain attributes that were desirable. The project required students to attempt these techniques, and Nina couldn't have found the assignment more yawn-worthy. Of course as a pureblood lady she would never allow herself to admit that to the general public, but Nina had almost fallen asleep in the greenhouses several times before. No one had ever caught her, but it wasn't uncommon for it to happen. Solo projects caused Nina to sleep more than work, but this time she had lucked out - she had a partner, and it was a good friend of hers.

Henry Lestrade was on his way - or at least Nina thought he was. They had been friends since Nina had tired of her boy-crazy housemates halfway through her first year. As far as she was concerned she might as well be living with squawking birds, arguing over a piece of meat. It had also been fairly disturbing to note just how often that meat was her own brother. Rather than subject herself to that sort of talk all of the time, she finally decided to go exploring. She'd found Gwen Fitzpatrick and Henry that way, and she was thoroughly pleased with her choice in friends. After spelling her trunk with a nasty trap in case any of her roommates tried to open it, Nina had begun to spend most of her time out of the Slytherin dormitory. Henry was always a fun person to spend time with, considering his adorable habit of being mean to her, although of course he didn't mean it. Nina knew for certain that he held her in just as high regard as she held him, and so this project might not end up being as painful as she'd originally thought. The downside was it was going to take quite some time to talk Henry into doing things her way. He was such a stress-ball. All he cared about nowadays was his grades. Nina intended to pull her weight on this project, not only because she didn't do things half way, but because Henry really needed to know that he could count on her, at least in this. He was so goal-oriented though, and Nina was sure that it was going to take a while to get him to agree with her idea for a project.

While the original assignment was to take a look at magical agriculture, Nina had decided she wanted to look at dragonweed - that is, she wanted a look at the drug trade. Naturally she wouldn't be able to grow that, as it was illegal, but she knew of similar plants, at least in the way that they grew. It would make or a much more interesting project, since she could incorporate her intricate knowledge of the legal system with much less research than it would normally take. That way, once the project was finished, maybe she could convince Henry that a celebration was in order, and she could get him away from his books long enough to have a pleasant evening with her and Gwen - and he could bring Lennox, if he really needed to.

It always was a fight to get Henry away from his books, more so than any Ravenclaw Nina had ever met, and so it required just the slightest touch of, well, dishonesty. Nina preferred to think of it as strategy when she could. The fact was that Nina just knew what was best for her friends, and Henry was no exception. He needed to relax, she needed to be entertained. Her plan would work on both fronts. But how to convince him? She could always fal back on her old standby, which was to annoy him into submission, but that took too long, and it was a surefire thing. She wanted a faster, more challenging plan. Through a great deal of deliberation, Nina had decided that she would get Henry to come up with the idea himself. She would just need to plant the seed, as it were. With this in mind, Nina sat on one of the low stools that they were supposed to use to trim the higher branches of the plants, and leaned up against the glass panes that afforded her a view of the path, for when Henry arrived.

[A]Niniane Moriarty

Name: Niniane Moriarty

Age: 23

Faction: AEGIS

Reason Behind Faction Choice: Her Viridian Guild ex-fiancé murdered her sister-in-law, and now her brother is determined to kill them all. She's decided she owes him her allegiance. How’s that for motivation?

Job: Unspeakable

Reasoning for Job Position: Nina wanted to know everything when she was younger, and unspeakable was always her dream job. From there she could learn everything about everything. Even if she hadn’t been qualified, her family’s prominence would have gotten her the job.

Physical Appearance: In her youth, Niniane had been both more and less vain, ending with the result of perhaps just being ‘differently vain’. She’d stopped charming her eyes the same blue as her brothers’ when she graduated, letting the color fade to her own natural hazel, which at seventeen she was finally able to admit was quite lovely. Her lips, always a bit on the thin side, are now plumped with makeup that she’d never really bothered with before. So you see, Nina has habits both more and less meticulous than when she was young. Now the habits stem from the desire to look professional, while before they were from the desire to appear attractive. She should have known better than to assume that people weren’t terrified of her elder brother long after he’d graduated, and cosmetic changes would make very little difference.

What did make a difference, after graduation, was the way her figure filled out with very generous curves that contrasted with the family tendency towards boniness. She thinks perhaps that the boniness is directly related to the family tendency towards violence and anger. Nina is slow to anger and prefers to get others to be violent in her stead, resulting in her healthy figure. She rather enjoys her average height and average breasts (perhaps it should have been mentioned that ‘very generous curves’ in the Moriarty family correlates to average-sized for everyone else). To complement her figure Nina has a tendency to wear flowing skirts and low-cut tops when not at work to emphasize her bust and hips. This, of course, exasperates her brother who is determined to prevent her from having sex whenever possible.

Personality: Where Niniane was bright-eyed, naïve and eager for knowledge as a young woman, now she is cold, cruel, and cynical. A brutal heartbreak stripped her of any sort of faith in mankind that may have survived her childhood with Sebastian and the Moriarty and Breen clans. With most people she is impersonal and excessively polite, making no attempt at making friends or strengthening relationships. The only people with any idea what she is like under the surface are those she was close with before her awful heartbreak, and she works so much that she doesn’t see them particularly often.

That’s not to say that she is never happy, or never kind. Those who know her would hardly recognize the description that her co-workers give. The woman they know is vibrant and attentive to her friends, loyal to a fault, and sometimes to sweet to believe. They did notice a change in her after the incident with her ex-fiancé, partly in the way that her already excessive drinking increased, but mostly in that she became rather promiscuous for a while, and after calming down still refused to try long-term relationships again on the grounds that she was rather enjoying herself, thank you very much. Now Nina is very much of the opinion that one needs to be at least thirty to have a successful marriage – ignoring the fact that before her sister-in-law died, her marriage with Sebastian was harmonious, if a little unconventional.

Nina still has a desire for knowledge but she understands now that all knowledge comes at a price, and you’d better hope the cost isn’t too high. She is too stubborn to give up her job as an unspeakable, but when it comes to people, Niniane no longer even attempts to read them. She doesn’t want to understand them, she just wants anyone she isn’t already friends with to leave her alone, and she’ll make them if she has to. She is efficient with her work acquaintances, remote and detached as much as she can be. Most importantly, Nina is proud, will refuse to admit that she is wrong on any subject, and will do whatever is necessary to convince the rest of the world that she is right. She’s also vengeful and unforgiving, so perhaps it would be best to avoid crossing her…

History: Niniane Moriarty graduated from Hogwarts ready to face the world, take on any challenge, go anywhere and do anything. She immediately moved in with her brother and Iona, happy to be in Guildford, close to where she would be working in the fall as a junior unspeakable. She was thrilled at the opportunity, and even more thrilled at knowing that her grandparents hadn’t had a hand in it. She wasn’t entirely sure that Sebastian hadn’t either, but she was more willing to accept help from him. Mostly Nina was just ready to start living life.

She’d been hearing about the Viridian Guild for some time now, but she disregarded it. Sebastian had told her that they were foolish, and she always listened to Sebastian, and so she turned her curiosity on something else. She decided to spend her summer people-watching in Diagon Alley. It got her away from her brother’s too-watchful eyes, and it would let her hone her observational skills, like the man in that muggle tlevisin programme – except Nina believed she was far superior in the ART of deduction than Sherkey House was at the SCIENCE of deduction. She treated it differently, but got vastly superior results. Honestly, how stupid do you have to be to miss the cabbie when he’s right there? In any case, there were very few people who ended up fooling Nina, and she hadn’t seen them around lately, outside of the Guildford House.

It was at Florean Fortesque’s Ice Cream Parlour that Nina met Lionel Varley. It was August, she was wearing a pink sundress and he dropped his glasses in her root beer float. She chewed him out for being clumsy and spilling ice cream on her skirt, promptly stood up and apparated home to change. Niniane was fuming for a week after, as that was her favorite sundress. She didn’t see Lionel Varley again for six months, didn’t remember him at all, and he offered to buy her coffee to refresh her memory. Eighteen and ready to fall in love, Nina accepted, and ended up having lunch with Lionel every day that week.

She introduced the man to Sebastian after only a month, not because she felt that a serious connection was inevitable, but because Sebastian made her. She was horribly embarrassed but Lionel was a gentleman and he took the whole thing rather well, despite the fact that her brother set his rather large mastiff on him. It was amusing to Nina, so she couldn’t be mad, especially since Lionel didn’t stop seeing her. Lionel confessed that he was a member of the Viridian Guild after about six months of dating, and tried his best to keep from pressuring her to join - just because her support would mean a great deal to him. Nina didn't feel that she was being pushed somewhere she didn't want to go, but still did not join the organization and supported her lover emotionally when he had a hard day.

Lionel proposed to her on her twentieth birthday, and Nina accepted without a thought. She was young, in love, and at least she was escaping an arranged marriage. Sure it wasn’t the sort of passionate all consuming thing she read about in books, but love was nice and comfortable, like an old warm sweater on a crisp autumn day. She never wanted to be without it. Of course, considering what happened at the engagement dinner with her brother and sister-in-law, Nina got rid of that old sweater rather fast.

Nina barely remembered how it happened that she ended up holding her sister-in-law’s skull together to keep her brains from joining the blood on the wood floor of the foyer. She’d called the healers but no one was coming, Sebastian was useless, and there was nothing to do but hold the fragile skull together in her hands and hope that the time that seemed to be flying by too quickly was actually moving agonizingly slowly.

When Sebastian told her that he’d joined AEGIS, she followed suit the next day.

Special Abilities / Other: None yet

[S]Niniane Moriarty

Name: Niniane Moriarty

Age: 15

Bloodline: Pureblood

Do you have more than one character? If yes, did you get permission to make this one?: Yes and yes!

Physical Appearance: When asked to describe Nina, the first thing anyone would mention is her smile. She seems to always be smiling, never at anything in particular, but her mind is engaged in such sweet thoughts that she can’t help but smile at anyone and everyone who walks by. In her round face, her pink lips stand out, always curved upwards to show her pleasure at simply being alive. The word most often used to describe Nina is “cute”, because after the smile, people notice her button of a nose, wide blue eyes (spelled that way to look like her brothers'), and childlike fascination with everything around her.

Her hair falls just past her shoulders in loose chestnut curls, the family’s signature color, and she keeps it clean and neat at all times. Standing at a very average five-foot-five, Nina is not a tall young woman, but she has the awkward walk of someone who is suddenly a great deal taller than she used to be, and who has not quite grown into the longer limbs. Nina used to be graceful, and doubtless she will be again, when she’s gotten used to her height, but for now she is rather adorably clumsy.

As a proper pureblood lady, Nina dresses conservatively, with her collars high and her skirts just above the knee. Every line is pressed and steamed, and everything is pristine and perfect. Half of it comes of the desire to look good, and the other half comes from wanting to look the part she plays. The clothes disguise the last bit of puppy fat that she has yet to lose in puberty, though she should expect to lose it soon, and gain another inch or two in height over the next three years she’s at Hogwarts.

Personality: On the surface Nina may seem to be the sweetest girl alive, but don’t let the rosy cheeks and perpetual smile fool you. Nina is just as devious as her brother is, but for different reasons. Sebastian is always struggling with boredom, but Nina manipulates people according to whatever whim she has at the moment. They aren’t always malicious; she has often played cupid, to her friends’ delight, and she’s helped a few students unwittingly develop better study habits. However, Nina does not do anything without a reason, and that reason is knowledge.

Niniane has a deep desire to know everything. Her brother was such a puzzle to her that a young Nina was intrigued, and she would not rest until she’d figured him out. After such a great challenge, Nina was unable to come up with anything quite as good, and so she wants to solve all of the mysteries of the universe. Growing up with Sebastian, Nina came to believe that one could not learn anything if others knew one’s true character, and so she developed a persona who could ask anything, and easily receive the answer.

Of course, Nina isn’t always so focused on her goal. She intends to become an unspeakable, and so for now she mostly uses her disarming personality to help her friends. Nina never has any desire to hurt anyone the way her brother does, but if they do, she doesn’t mind. It’s just collateral damage.

Nina does have a big heart though, and she will forget her plans in a heartbeat if it means avoiding the manipulation of a true friend. On the other hand, Nina is vengeful, and uses her charming, happy-go-lucky exterior to destroy anyone who bothers her in any way. Being a bit of a whimsical person, Nina can be annoyed by anything from a comment about her dress to a classmate making a pretentious speech. She takes it upon herself to punish people for whatever offenses they committed against her, and she does it all with a smile.

Character Background: With two insane bickering parents and a sociopathic brother one could hardly expect Niniane to end up normal, could they? Lucas and Aurelia never really stopped yelling at each other long enough to notice that their parents and their son were raising their daughter for them. Rather than resent them for the neglect, Nina was grateful. Sebastian taught her more about life without saying a single word than she had from anything her parents had ever told her.

Nina’s grandparents tried to teach her to be the perfect pureblooded granddaughter, and she was, on the surface. It was hard for her to care about blood when Sebastian complained about how utterly boring the other pureblood children were, and she had to admit that he was right. No matter that he always told her to be polite, to give people the benefit of the doubt, to be compassionate, she knew that he didn’t mean it. Nina’s greatest power, even from a young age, was that of observation.

It wasn’t hard for Nina to see that her brother smiled when really he wanted to twist someone’s arm until it broke, and for a long time she didn’t understand why he didn’t just do whatever he wished to – Sebastian was a god to Nina, and so in her mind, he deserved whatever he wanted. As she got older and discovered the annoyance of social conventions, Nina began to study her brother, to attempt to understand the mystery behind Sebastian’s adherence to the rules, when she’d long been aware he could get away with anything.

No one could present a challenge quite like Sebastian, and so after Nina began to truly understand her brother, the two of them held up a relationship based entirely on lies. Nina pretended to be a sweet little girl and Sebastian pretended to be a doting older brother. The lies worked – they kept the two of them close, because two such manipulative people could not exist harmoniously with an honest relationship.

When Nina arrived at Hogwarts, she was kept busy for a time learning whatever the castle could teach her. One day, however, she realized she could learn much more from the other students, and set about charming every single one of them, so that if she ever wanted to know something, no one would ever deny her the answer.

Special Request Undecided

Desired House: Slytherin!

Roleplay Sample: The moment classes ended, Niniane had dragged Gwen down to the dungeons with the express purpose of spending a wonderful weekend with her best mates. There was a party tonight which Nina would use as a starter, but the real fun would be the sleepover with her best friend and her cousin that she would be allowed because of this night. The party was really just an excuse; Slytherins didn't really appreciate their own inviting outsiders into their den. As it was, the password would probably be reset in the morning just in case. One couldn't be too careful, and Slytherins were often paranoid. Gwen was a Ravenclaw, and had a sister in Slytherin, so Nina was certain that she'd be just fine and safe in the House of Snakes, and of course Isolde had family in Nina and Sebastian. Niniane didn't intend to leave her friends alone for a minute. While no one would risk causing physical harm to the girls, no one could keep them psychologically safe. If there was one thing that Nina had learned from growing up with Sebastian, it's that even a few words could destroy someone. Gwen was brilliant but she was shy, and Nina had no doubt that her housemates could pick apart her deepest insecurities. Most were afraid enough of Pippa Fitzpatrick to leave her younger sister alone, but Nina knew that not all of them knew when to quit, and there were a few who weren't going to let someone with impure blood ruin their fun. Nina's blood and her elder brother would protect Gwen tonight, and Isolde, well, despite not being a Slytherin she grew up in this bloody mess, so she knew what to expect and how to handle herself.

With a sigh, Nina returned to the task of getting ready for the evening. She wasn't overly fond of these swanky events. They always made her slightly uncomfortable, because every single person at the event who spoke to her wanted something from her. Whether it was her brother's good favor or her family's influence, or even a connection with her as she was a promising young witch, Slytherins at these events knew how to trap you. Nina had begged her friend to come so that she would have someone to talk to who didn't want to get something from her, and she'd invited her Hufflepuff cousin Isolde for family solidarity. With Gwen on her arm any leeches would have to speak cryptically, and Nina could ignore them. As long as she did it properly, her social station could let her get away with a limited amount of rudeness, as a second born child. Her manners didn't need to be impeccable unless she was in the presence of her grandparents, and so Nina didn't feel as though she had to present a perfect front tonight. Most of the Slytherins wouldn't notice if she was being rude anyway. Not everyone, even purebloods, had gotten the same exhaustive training that the Moriarty family had insisted on.

Slipping into her demure black cocktail dress, Nina turned to her eagle friend. "Are you ready, Gwen? I promise it won't be so bad, and you won't have to talk to anyone you don't know if you want. Just smile and nod when I introduce you," Nina instructed, feeling the nerves that rolled off her friend in waves. "And Isolde should arrive shortly. You won't have to rely on just me." Fastening her delicate gold and garnet bracelet, a gift from Sebastian that matched her earrings (Moriarty family heirlooms), Nina felt ready to face her House. Clad in the Moriarty family's colors of black, crimson, and gold, Nina had a shield against the worst of the plotting that could occur, though the trade off was that it was a beacon for social climbers. Hopefully it wouldn't be too terrible once people got drunk, and Nina, Isolde and Gwen could sneak back upstairs to chat, get their schoolwork out of the way, and then spend the night just having fun. It was times like this that Nina wished she'd been sorted into Ravenclaw, but they didn't last. Bookish she was, but an absent-minded academic she was not. Slytherins were more difficult people, and Nina enjoyed that. As much as she loved Gwen, the two of them wouldn't be best friends if they were together all of the time. They each needed a break from each other, Nina to get her serpentine instincts under control, and Gwen to pursue academic interests that Nina had no desire to know.

Standing, she headed to the top of the staircase leading downstairs, and held out her hand to her friend. "Come on. Let's show them all how we deal with these obvious power plays."


OOC Name: EVIE

How did you find out about Wizarding Realm? I JUST DID, OKAY.