kingofthefairies | about 🍭

GENERAL

NAME: Laurel Elizabeth Templeton.
NICKNAMES: None she'll respond to.
AGE/DOB: 17 / June 3rd, 1996. Gemini.
BLOOD STATUS: Half-blood.
GENDER/PRONOUNS: She/her.
SEXUALITY: Mostly straight?? What?? Gayer than expected? WHO KNOWS
HOMETOWN: A hidden wizarding community in the heart of Seattle (sometimes called New Beacon Hill).

CONCEPT: Haphazard drama geek and dancing queen.

PHYSICAL

APPEARANCE: Big, wavy blonde hair & blue eyes. Messy, colorful. Laurel is often mismatched, and due to time management issues is often forced to pull on whatever, run a brush through her hair, and go. It's not entirely without charm. Think lots of bright tights, dangly earrings, paisley, quirky patterns, grandpa sweaters. She's also good at charms in this area -- you'll often see her with color-changing pieces, jackets that change fabric depending on the weather, supernaturally sparkly jewelry.

What Laurel is bad at is adhering to uniform. This is sometimes because she's forgetful, sometimes because she's in too much of a rush, and sometimes because she wants to see what she can get away with. Not that the whole schoolgirl aesthetic isn't kinda fun sometimes.

established in game:
~ wears yellow converse ! (sometimes charmed to HELLA SPARKLE)
~ carries around the Probity Probe she won in the talent contest, as well as half of a pair of magic mirrors (Ivy has the other)
~ good at eyeliner
~ messy ass hair

HEIGHT: 5'7".

PB: Freya Mavor!

PERSONALITY

LIKES: hip hop, ginger cookies, makeup, dancing, reading, card games, muggle and wizard lit, mysteries, board games, alcohol, cooking, comedy, contemporary and performance art, new shoes, baby animals, drama club, visual/graphic novels, fashion, history, trashy tv shows, glitter, science fiction, gardening, travel.

DISLIKES: flying, most sports, precision tasks, things that are too matchy-matchy, waiting, public speaking, homework, cleaning, Deep Conversations, too much responsibility.

PERSONALITY:

Cheerful, straightforward, carefree. A bit of a follower. Laughs easily, takes little seriously UNTIL SHE DOES. Somewhat brusque. Very giving. Small sliver of a dark side.

Laurel is quite simple when it comes down to it -- what you see is generally what you get.

She has a personality of extremes: extreme positives and extreme negatives. Bravery is recklessness is rash decisions. Honesty is frankness is bluntness. Laurel is the type to have a straight answer for everything, and there is very little in her life that makes for uncomfortable conversation -- at least on her end. While this bluntness can sometimes make people uncomfortable, it's quite natural for her. She has never been good at keeping things in, and has become well-known for a massive heart on the sleeve. Her interactions with the world and other people tend to be big, straightforward and earnest -- even somewhat childish. She comes across as simultaneously elegant and crude, like a pink ballerina carrying a mace into battle. She's very quick to laughter, sometimes at the expense of others, but mainly due to an ineffable, somewhat absurd sense of humor.

A dividing point when it comes to Laurel is this apparent lack of seriousness. She appears to approach life as though it were all some sort of hilarious game. Though she cares deeply about her personal interests and can manage to take those seriously, you're generally more likely to see her throw up her hands and laugh than roll up her sleeves. She often bounces immediately to a new solution when something goes wrong, instead of gritting her teeth or despairing. This can often appear as fickleness -- something will be so important to her one moment, and of no consequence the next. It's not because she really is so fickle or indecisive -- she's just extremely flexible. This quality is of enormous importance to her in any area of life, as she's the sort of person who rarely plans for anything in advance. Laurel is far from a perfectionist and views unexpected problems or inadequacies as lessons -- or temporary barriers to blast through using force. She believes in her abilities and the abilities of others (when understood, anyway), and is the kind of friend who will support you to the furthest extents.

That said, while she truly believes anything can be fixed or figured out or sidestepped with enough effort, she cannot quite be called optimistic. This isn't really a world one can have any illusions about -- it's hard and scary and adults have bizarre priorities, and how do we reconcile society's expectations with who we really are inside? Angst!! Thusly, Laurel tries very hard to be a fair person; she realizes that people are rarely given what they truly deserve in life, and likes to try and level the playing field. Sometimes this means throwing a few punches. Sometimes it means holding back. Flexibility.

Unfortunately, it also means making your own calls of judgement, something Laurel struggles with. Growing up with Ivy, she's sometimes considered herself part of a pair rather than a single human being. Group dynamics are her undoing, as she often mistakes the wills and whims of a wider group with her own moral compass. It's been the work of a lifetime to behave fully like her own person; she's gotten better at this the last couple of years, but it's still not totally natural to her, and sometimes results in overcompensation. Laurel's been known to do ridiculous things to set herself apart, then turn around and follow the crowd anyway. She often chooses very unexpected (sometimes petty) hills to die on, just to be contrary.

Despite a natural desire to learn and succeed, Laurel also struggles with applying herself. She dislikes responsibility, shies away from imposed structure, and is often too disorderly to do well with meticulous tasks, or those that require her to keep time (apart from dancing). This said, though, she retains a good amount of knowledge when interested and can chatter happily for hours about various passions and hobbies or wayward curiosities. While her attention might be fleeting in the classroom, she can hunker down with a book for an entire afternoon, or spend a day locked in focus while working on her senior project. Basically, while she does embody her house in many ways, that easygoing nature doesn't stretch on and on forever for Laurel. She has serious feelings about certain things! They're just somewhat few and far between, or not of a nature that would be immediately obvious to others.

In this way, there's definitely a Gemini duality to Laurel, even if it's something that rarely has occasion to reveal itself. The cheery, straightforward, amiable personality has its darker mirror image, in that when Laurel finds a reason to cease being any of those things, she's a nightmare. She can be vindictive and bossy when pushed, and doesn't mind taking things a little too far when sufficiently hurt or angry. An easy-going nature can also mean allowing yourself to walk away from or neglect important things simply because you have the emotional capacity for it. Lack of seriousness can morph into a lack of will, which can be disastrous when depressed. Laurel's childishness can be fun and charming, but also seriously frustrating in an argument.

Thankfully, the girl's pretty even keel. There's a reason she was sorted into Azurcrest -- while not an incurable optimist, she can always find something to laugh at.

HISTORY

FAMILY MEMBERS:

★CHARLES TEMPLETON III, father, pureblood. 50. Works in banking. Old money. Charles has always been somewhat emotionally distant from his kids. He's been a good dad, definitely, but he has a kind of WASPish lack of color to him at times (or at least, that's how Laurel interprets things; in reality, he just has a different sense of humor and purpose). Charles constantly supplies the twins with money and items of note, probably pulled a few strings to get Laurel into Gooseberry along with Ivy, and is generally a good person. He's horrible at standing up to his own parents, though, and marrying Penelope has been his most rebellious act to date.

★PENELOPE TEMPLETON nee BRIGHTMAN, mother, muggleborn. 49. A hairdresser. Penelope is a sweet person, if a bit of a gossip and meddler -- essentially, Charles' opposite. She's eternally curious about the magical world, too, having not exactly grown up in it, and is generally very supportive of Laurel and Ivy. Laurel adores her mother, but is also embarrassed by her from time to time. She's sometimes had to step in to prevent her Templeton grandparents from verbally eviscerating her at holiday parties.

★IVY TEMPLETON, twin sister, halfblood. 17. The most important person in Laurel's life so far. The sisters are sometimes very different people -- and it was actually something of a blessing, to get sorted into different Houses and have a chance to foster those differences -- but there's almost nothing Laurel wouldn't do for Ivy if asked. Or not asked. They're best friends, except when familial tensions and expectations drive a wedge between them. Even then, really.

★CHARLES and MELINDA TEMPLETON II, grandparents, pureblooded. Ancient terrors. Neither really approved of Laurel's parents getting together, and though they love the twins can sometimes be a bit judgmental and pushy.

★OPAL BRIGHTMAN, maternal aunt, muggleborn. 40. Penelope's younger sister and Laurel's favorite relative on that side of the family.

HISTORY:

1996. Laurel and Ivy are born, Laurel second by exactly two minutes. At this point, their parents have been happily married for about two years and are living in Seattle together, tucked in a tiny wizarding apartment in a hidden magical neighborhood.

Charles can afford to hire a special nanny/tutor for the lil babes, a retired Charms instructor named Prudence. She stays with them until they enter school, providing a super basic magical background -- as much as one can have, as a preschooler -- while Penelope handles everything else.

Early childhood is happy and relatively trouble-free. The twins often have playdates with other children of similar backgrounds. Charles and Penelope sometimes struggle with dodging interference from Charles' mother and father, who are super old-school and want to see their grandchildren raised "properly."

2001-2007. The girls get started at Lake Union Preparatory, a Seattle K-12 wizarding school that Charles attended as a child (and still makes hefty donations to).

While her twin seems to immediately flourish, Laurel doesn't do so well with the structure here until she's a bit older. She enjoys recess, high energy classes like gym or music, and making friends, but from the very beginning has a hard time settling down and focusing the majority of the time. Some of her instructors have issues handling her energy (ex. giggling, dancing, singing, making jokes) and she is often disciplined when Ivy can't reel her back in or Charle's threats of punishment at home leave no impression.

Eventually, Laurel is put on a gentle individualized learning plan and forced into after-school tutoring three times a week. Being pretty little still -- and yes, admittedly rambunctious -- this is zero fun, but proves fruitful. As the years progress and Laurel enters third and fourth grade, she's enjoying school far better and beginning to compete with Ivy a little more when it comes to grades. She becomes a bit of a bookworm, too; on afternoons when she isn't in dance classes with friends or running around outside in their wizarding neighborhood, Laurel checks out armfuls of books from the library at a time and spends hours reading and daydreaming about their contents.

In fifth grade, Laurel gets a small part in the school play -- a bit of an honor, as it's typically 6th years and up who are included in casting.

2008-2009. 6th and 7th Grade. School gets way, way better for Laurel here. Her energy levels even out somewhat; unsurprisingly, it turns out that when she's sufficiently challenged or interested by coursework she finds it easier to conduct herself, and growing maturity helps, of course. Her interests in things like literature and history deepen. She tries to learn to fly this year, too -- a little bit behind some of her friends, who have been doing it since they were babies -- and is awful at it. She falls off her broom during lessons and sends it smashing into a cafeteria window, which is of course Hilarious (and gets her sent home early).

Laurel also continues with theatre. She gets into things like costuming as well as acting, as in involved with both the school play and musical in various roles. Charles purchases voice lessons for her and Ivy, to go along with dance, and they start attending some community theatre events out in muggle Seattle. This is fascinating, some of Laurel's first experiences with no-maj culture outside of her mother's extended family.

During the summer, Charles and Penelope take the twins on a European vacation (France, Spain, Italy). The next year continues on the same sort of upward trend. Laurel starts writing some "short stories," but the notebook she's written them in (and shoddily charmed for privacy) get discovered & hacked by an eighth grade boy. She's teased relentlessly about them until Christmas break, when everyone completely forgets. In the spring Lake Union puts on the musical Annie, and Laurel makes the titular role. Charles and Penelope are really proud, and let her enroll in a summer theatre program (the first activity of this kind that she's ever done without Ivy).

2010. The first half of the year is normal.

Sometime in spring, Charles announces that he's secured places for the girls to continue their education at Gooseberry. WTF. Laurel is thrown for a loop by this; she barely knows anything about the school except that it's supposed to be prestigious and is in the middle of fucking nowhere. Cue dramatics. She breaks down crying during the spring musical. She tries to "run away" from home by hiding in a best friend's room.

It's a horrible summer, but by the time the bus shows up to ferry the twins to Gooseberry, Laurel's resigned herself. Ivy's spent a lot of time convincing her that everything will be okay, that it's a chance to try something new, that they'll make new friends. She wouldn't want to be separated anyway.

2011. The initial shock of being sorted into different Houses wears off quickly when everything is so new and weird. Laurel is wary about things at first, still emotional and shell-shocked about her parents' separation. Still, she grows to love her cabinmates and the kids in her classes and Drama Club and and and and.

It's just the classes themselves that end up being a challenge. Gooseberry is way harder than Lake Union, and Laurel doesn't have the advantage of having known her instructors since she was a little kid, or of being surrounded by friends, or going home to a dad who will insist on tutors and impose extra lessons. It's really tough! Her grades aren't the best they've ever been -- they slip embarrassingly far -- and she comforts herself by alternately goofing off, reading late into the night, immersing herself in extracurriculars, etc. Charles isn't thrilled.

By the end of the year, though, she's gotten the hang of things! Thankfully. With some extra pushing. As a reward, she's allowed to go chill with a friend's family in Vancouver over the summer. It's the longest time she's ever spent away from Ivy, alternately depressing and totally liberating. Such is life.

2012. Sophomore Year! Laurel is a better student this time around, but still struggles with time management (and focus, sometimes). She manages to do well enough to continue in the desired courses. Charles is pleased enough to finally cave and let her purchase her own familiar, which is Amazing even if it turns out Pickle is the most skittish cat in the entire world. Also amazing: her first experiences with LARP, a first kiss, success in Drama Club, etc.

This is the year she first begins formulating a potential senior project. She starts doing some light research into magic and dance and magical dance and dancing magic and every variation she can think of, though her attention is admittedly stretched rather thin until the summer, when she can take as many classes as her parents will reasonably allow.

Laurel also submits a short story to a contest put on by a wizarding teen magazine, half on a whim and half because she suspects she might be the voice of a generation. It wins third place, which she crows about for weeks.

2013. A normal year, by most accounts. Things continue in much the same vein as the last, though it's difficult when it's starting to dawn on you that everything is changing and soon you'll have to seriously Grow Up and Get Your Own Life. Laurel starts acting out a little bit here and there during the fall, when her father and grandparents start pushing her to at least conceptualize a future career and complete some relevant and challenging coursework (it doesn't help that Ivy is leagues ahead of her in this regard). Laurel clamps down on dance and drama and literature and -- just a little -- distinguishing herself in these areas as well as from her twin. It's a weird time for their relationship. None of the tension is really their fault, but neither can help the circumstances.

Spring continues in much the same way. Over the summer, Laurel insists on going to tour magical arts colleges. Her mother ends up taking the twins all across the country to investigate these "alternative" options, much to Charles' (mild) dismay. They return with Laurel no closer to knowing what she wants to do precisely, but certainly more determined to do well on that planned senior project. It feels like a way to prove... something. What, exactly, is yet to be determined.

SCHOOL

YEAR: Grade 12, Senior.
HOUSE: Azurcrest.
SORTING: Laurel was sorted after Ivy, and originally entered the cave determined to be placed in Ribbonfin with her sister. She imagined it wouldn't be too difficult to convince the emblems of the rationality in this, given that she wasn't so different from Ivy, and she did have the supposedly Ribbonfin quality of "diplomacy" (in Laurel's case, chattering until Something Happens). Instead, Laurel spent the duration of her sorting unable to get a word in edgewise as Azurcrest, Ribbonfin and Coppertale debated amongst themselves (with Ribbonfin the quieter of the three). Something about the way they talked and huffed and chose their words struck her as hilarious, though, and this laughter sealed her fate.
WAND: Black walnut | 10" | unicorn tail hair | inflexible.
FAMILIAR: A skittish Siamese cat named Pickle.

CLASSES:

CORE
History of Magic
Charms
Transfiguration
Potions
Herbology

ELECTIVE
Aesthetic Magic
Wizard Literature

SENIOR PROJECT: Laurel's putting together a dance performance, with one song chosen to represent each Gooseberry house. She's also collecting, constructing and/or enchanting all of her own props and costumes and costume changes (there's only one so far, and it's Semi-Impossible). The major challenge to all of this is learning the handful of wandless spells needed to properly pull off her vision in-performance, which has been difficult for Laurel -- thankfully, the more she practices the better she gets at it. Fingers crossed. This project is perhaps the thing she takes most seriously, at least in regards to her academic performance.

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: Though she's by no means unintelligent and is often quite curious re: subjects of note, Laurel is an average student. If she'd remained at the K-12 she and Ivy previously attended, she might be considered more at the top of the pile. Alas, here we are, tending for middle at best.

Most core classes aren't of much interest to her beyond their general usefulness. She tends to be bored or distracted quite easily, the kind of student to chat through lessons or daydream half the lecture away, then find herself working extra hard to catch up later. Her best subjects throughout school have been Charms (she has a natural knack) and Herbology, though whether she actually enjoys them or not is up for question (or varies from day to day).

The things she really enjoys are things like History of Magic and Wizard Literature, being more than a bit of a bookworm on her own time. In these classes, Laurel is far more likely to stay engaged, enjoy discussion, put in extra effort, etc. These are the arenas in which she'll sometimes appear out of nowhere with well-researched, creative, and dynamic projects/papers. Otherwise she can tend to be a bit sloppy -- even in a bit of a sarcastic way -- and often turns in assignments with minimal polish.

EXTRACURRICULARS:

EVENT COMMITTEE
Silly ideas (give everyone bubble fluid! indoor fireworks! etc)
Mostly expands on other people's & helps implement plans as made

DRAMA CLUB
Shines here, but often fills supporting roles
A good character actor capable of convincing accents
Talented dancer

LARP
Everything is hilarious
Plays Celestine, wood elf bard who likes to make up songs

GAMING CLUB
Surprisingly good at games of tactic/logic, even though she plays based on gut feelings
Competitive in a friendly way
A fan of impromptu rules