1st Year Ability

Link to your encyclopedia thread: Here.
Name of Ability or Race/Talent that you Are Applying for: The Martial Artist
Describe why this fits your character (not why you the player want it):

Reducio

Despite being a witch, her muggle father had insisted on teaching Amelia the basics of fighting in case a time ever came where she had to defend herself without magic. As her father had done karate and taekwondo when he was a teenager, her parents didn't find a need to pay for lessons as her father could teach her. They agreed that once her father taught her the basics, if she wanted to start lessons, she could.

When Amelia turned 9, her father asked her if she would be interested in learning some martial arts moves. Being a naturally curious girl who was willing to try new things, she agreed immediately. They started off with learning some basic karate punches. "It is important that you use your entire body when throwing a punch, as it will make the punch stronger," her father had told her. Her father had then demonstrated a range of different punches: the straight punch, the lunge punch, the reverse punch, and the jab punch. "These punches are the basic karate punches, they are simple to use and the easiest ones to learn. These are the best punches to use during a fight as they tend to be the most powerful." Amelia had got ahold of the punches very quickly, and they were soon moving on to learn different karate moves.

After her father had taught her the basic karate moves, he moved on to teach her some basic taekwondo moves. "Taekwondo moves are mostly focused on using your arms and legs to attack." Her father had explained. He taught her a front kick, roundhouse kick, and back kick. "Even though it is a rare chance you will need to use these kicks as self defense, they are always useful to know, as it's better to be safe than sorry."

After her father taught her all the basic moves that he thought would be best for her to know, she spent her time practicing the moves in her free time until she perfected them. Luckily, there has yet to be a situation where she has been required to use these moves, but they are always useful to know. Especially in Hogwarts because anything can happen and Amelia thinks it'll benefit her in the future to have some martial arts moves up her sleeve in a school full of magic where the main weapon for defense is your wand.

Word count: 401/400

2nd Year Ability

Link to your encyclopedia thread: Here.
Name of Ability or Race/Talent that you Are Applying for: Calming Presence
Describe why this fits your character (not why you the player want it):

Reducio

Some people are great people to be around, whether that's because they're incredibly nice or they make the best jokes, everyone has that one person who they love spending time with. With Amelia though, it's different. People visibly relax when they're around her, whether someone's stressed out over homework or whether her mother lost an important newspaper article she was currently writing for the Daily Prophet, when Amelia walks into the room, they all seem to relax.

A perfect example of this happened when she was 10, her mother's friend was around for the day with her 1 year old boy. Amelia was in the kitchen making herself a sandwich when she heard the baby let out a high-pitched cry in the living room. He wouldn't stop crying, it didn't matter if his mother gave him his bottle or his teddy, he just kept on crying and crying. But when Amelia went into the living room and knelt down beside the baby, it instantly stopped crying and tilted it's head, looking at her curiously. "My, aren't you just a natural with kids," The mother sighed happily, "You seem to know how to instantly calm them down." Amelia was a bit confused, she hadn't done anything except for kneeling down in front of the boy and simply staring at him. She shrugged it off as a mere coincidence, not bothering to dwell on it.

She had momentarily forgot about her strange ability to instantly calm people down, but then something happened and she was back to thinking about it. Her former primary school friend was stressing over the math homework they were assigned, she didn't understand it and she was starting to worry as it was due the next day. Amelia noticed her friend biting the lid of her pen and nervously chewing on her bottom lip as she tried to figure out how to do the homework. "Hey, don't worry," Amelia smiled reassuringly at her, "Do you want me to explain it to you? I'm sure you'll understand it if we do a question together." Her friends rigid shoulders relaxed a bit, and she turned to smile gently at Amelia. "You're right, it's really not a big deal. Could you help me? I'm sure I'll get it with a bit of explaining." Amelia blinked slowly, a bit confused at her friends instant mood change. How could someone go from stressed out to relaxed so quickly?

Yes, it is true that there are people you just love to be around because they emit a nice and welcoming aura. But Amelia is different. People who are stressed out around her instantly calm down when she talks to them. The young girl seems to have quite a calming presence surrounding her.

Word count: 458/400

Encyclopedia Thread | There you go!
Name of Ability or Race | Perfectionist
Describe why it Fits my Character
Word Count | 525/400

Reducio

The world isn't perfect. Imperfections along the beauties of nature had always shown in little ways, peaking through the cracks. The root problems were hard to see, almost far and long gone. Too much for a young thirteen-year-old to put his mind on. No, the biggest worries of the world for a thirteen-year-old would be their hair, or their clothes, a public image perhaps. It was true that the age range tends to be filled with self-serving people and those with superficial values. They were still trying to figure the world out.

Not all his second year had he been thirteen, but it had been quite the roller coaster. The most memorable parts or the only few parts of it he was willing to remember were the duels. A roller coaster for certain. He'd been on the same team as the dueling captain and yet they'd lost twice. It wasn't a good look, and Alec felt bad for his teammate. He wanted to blame it on the other two teams and their antics, but of course, he couldn't. It wasn't right. Nor were insults, and extreme wishes of good luck going to affect the results of a duel. Good sportsmanship and lasting impressions? It was very possible there would be something there, but not these specific acts.

It had been the lack of strategy and his wand cooperating with Alec that had led to his own downfall. All of his duels he had been left to carry the team, two times he had failed. It rounded to 67% of the time. It wasn't doing anyone any good. And by the last two losses he had to do something about it. If not for the sake of his teammate or himself and his own standards then for the sake of all the parental pressure he had on his shoulders. They certainly weren't going to be happy with a 67% fail rate. Alec had to raise his levels and pick up his act, and for that he did.

After this loss of the first two, he would spend time by himself training for the last and final duel of the year. Studying and perfecting his spellcasting, he needed it to be perfect. He wasn't going to let his teammate down this team. To Alec's surprise, he didn't. It was close, however, and that wasn't good enough for Alec.

With news of coming changes within the dueling team, Alec knew from that point on he had to practice and try just as hard. It was something that kept his mind off more recent events, and he was appreciative of this factor as summer started to roll around. He was in need of a distraction more than ever. And had the perfect one, he needed to achieve perfection in his spellcasting, he would not let his team fail this time. His summer nights after the final decision ended up with a lack of sleep. But he was ready, he would not let himself fail a single spell, he couldn't, he would best himself. He was prepared to head into a new school year, his trusty wand at his side.

Encyclopedia | click here
Name of Ability or Race | Prodigal Charms Learner
Why It Fits |

Reducio

Duelling with a fourth year made it painfully obvious how little Lea knew as a first year. Even the teams the two went up against highlighted this fact, waking up in the hospital wing twice and barely holding onto consciousness another time. Frustration provided motivation, a need to somehow catch up with Frost- or at the very least, know more. Moving up to second year really wouldn't change a thing about her predicament unless the hufflepuff decided to do something about it.

The end of her first year school year and Lea was running out of time or ideas to really practice spells then. Could she ask Frost for lessons? Did either even have time with duelling and last minute assignments from teachers? So nothing would change her first year until the summer between first and second year. Time was now in surplus, a chance to focus on the more advanced magic before the next year came around. Only her parents weren't interested in her staying inside all day, preferring that she went out and talked with her friends and relatives.

So she did both and found that her reading had slowed tremendously with her time for learning now being the hours between dinner and bedtime. This wasn't going to work either, already noticing how this technique wouldn't get the soon-to-be second year ahead in any of her classes. A new technique was needed, and the first that came up? Focusing on one subject. Preferably one that taught lots of spells and would be helpful in duelling, bringing her options down to two: Defense against the Dark Arts or Charms. Putting the rest of her books back, the last textbook standing would be the one for Charms, a new motivation to go above and beyond in her studying. She needed to learn more spells, wanting to escape the feelings of helplessness or weakness as a first year that could hardly help their duelling partner.

And so she practiced, muttering the incantations aloud until they were spoken without trouble, waving her finger in the air until the wand movement was known almost instinctively. Casting the spells wasn't really possible in her muggle household, but Lea could still work on each piece separately until they were ingrained in her mind and muscles. So long as the girl knew what she wanted from the spell, putting the pieces together wouldn't be so challenging when the next school year started.

Word Count | 406 of 400

Link to your encyclopedia thread: [accio]
Name of Ability or Race/Talent that you Are Applying for: Statistically Relevant [+2 to Accuracy]
Word Count: 581
Describe why this fits your character (not why you the player want it):

Reducio

In Quidditch, every attack started with one key thing. Hitting the target. It didn't matter how much power you put into the Bludger, it didn't matter if it wasn't your best or your strongest hit - that would mean nothing if you couldn't actually nail the opposition.

When Scarlett had first started playing Quidditch, joining the team way back in September last year, she had made many mistakes. Quidditch in Godric's Hollow had been child's play, with the players using toy broomsticks, tennis balls and hula hoops. But at Hogwarts, things were serious. There was pressure. There was a crowd, half cheering, half booing at you. If you failed, everyone in the school would see. Now, Scarlett wasn't one to crack under pressure. She didn't consider herself someone who experienced nerves. But there was something - something - about the raucous students in the stands and the compulsion to win, that Scarlett found herself fumbling. She could barely snatch a Bludger from the air, let alone hit it towards someone. On the rare occasion she did grab a Bludger, it normally missed by a mile, leaving the target unharmed, making her start from scratch.

Scarlett never wanted it to happen again.

After all, there was no shortcut, no secret to success. If she wanted to hit the mark, she needed to train. And she did.

She trained with Gris, she trained alone. She flung herself out of bed at the crack of dawn and - what with the new curfew rules - waited until the clock struck seven so she could train some more, before most of Hogwarts was even awake. She spent afternoons relentlessly whizzing around the Quidditch training pitch, trying to hit the ball just one more time. If she wasn't in a hurry, she would only stop when dinner came, as well as the eight o'clock curfew.

Now Scarlett didn't exactly know if she was allowed to use actual Bludgers in her training, because she wasn't a captain. However, it didn't stop her from digging around in her trunk and emerging with an old tennis ball that she had insisted she should pack 'for the memories' back in first year. The tennis ball would now serve a greater purpose than sitting at the bottom of a trunk for sentimental reasons. The tennis ball would become her practice Bludger.

Tennis balls didn't fly around, so Scarlett had to make do with throwing it into the air and trying to hit it with her Beater's bat. She then moved on to throwing it in the air, hitting it with her bat and aiming it at a target she had decided on. Afterwards, she progressed to doing all of that, but on her broom, stationary in the air. Then, she had started to fly around to push herself even harder.

She noticed changes in her everyday life as well. She could pinpoint things more easily. She had a sense of control around her. If she threw a pencil at someone, it would hit. If she high-fived someone, it would hit. If she pinned something up on her wall, the pin would go through the first time. They were small, simple things that were a result of all her practicing in Quidditch, all of her hours of training. She was just a bit more accurate now, a bit more accurate than she was before.

Scarlett didn't consider herself determined in a lot of things. But Quidditch was where that ended.

Scarlett was going to hit that target.

SECOND YEAR ABILITY APPLICATION:

Link to your encyclopedia thread: Here
Name of Ability or Race/Talent that you Are Applying for:
The Muggle Condition

Describe why this fits your character (not why you the player want it):

Reducio

Growing up caught between two worlds was never an easy task for young Winnie Harper. Unfortunately, her confusion about the wizarding world was only made worse by her only magical parent, her father, who was against using his own magic. As she grew older, her curiosity grew, and she longed to learn more about magic, but Finn Harper believed in living life through ‘natural’ means, which meant little to no magic. Magic was unnatural; for freaks who wanted to cheat life. Because of her father’s views on magic, Winnie spent her early years growing up as any normal muggle child would have, with the usual muggle toys, books, movies, and television shows. The only difference was that she was aware of the wizarding world, but for Winnie it was untouchable.

Winnie’s mother is also a muggle, and did not know magic existed before she met Finn Harper. However, she did help Winnie learn more about magic when she could, but her knowledge was very limited. So, instead, she homeschooled Winnie using her own knowledge about the muggle world, and this knowledge was the core education that Winnie received as a young child. Winnie learned the traditional muggle school subjects, such as math, English, science, and social studies, but her mother also taught other muggle skills, such as painting, writing, singing, baking, cooking, and sewing. Winnie’s mother insisted that these skills were almost like magic because of how happy they could make others.

The lack of magic use made growing up on a large farm a bit difficult, but everything had to be done by hand. There was no practical magic to collect the eggs, milk the cows, or sheer the sheep. These were things that Winnie had to be taught to do by hand, despite her almost constant complaining that using magic would be easier. Winnie would have to learn the basics of growing vegetables and flowers by hand too, and helped her mother tend to her large gardens. Over the years, the hard farm work helped her develop not only skills but also physical strength. This strength would come in handy should she ever find herself wandless and needing a way to defend herself, or perhaps even wanting to tackle a student. Sometimes blunt force and non-magical solutions came easier to Winnie than spells and potions. Part of her worries she won’t be able to adjust to her new life, despite having wanted nothing more than to attend Hogwarts during her childhood.

Word Count: 413

IN CASE YOU ARE APPLYING FOR A SPECIAL RACE OR RARE TALENT:
Stamina: 6 | Evasion: 6 | Strength: 7| Wisdom: 7 | Arcane Power: 7 | Accuracy: 7

Link to your encyclopedia thread: Clicky
Name of Ability or Race/Talent that you Are Applying for: Charmer
Describe why this fits your character (not why you the player want it):

Reducio

Etiquette can go a long way. A person who understands the ins and outs of social etiquette can command a room or disappear within it on a whim. What to say, who to say it to, and how to say it. When to smile, to politely laugh, to remain serious, to appear interested or commiserate. Kazuo had been taught etiquette from as early an age as possible. With both of his parents entrenched in the political landscapes of both the mundane and magical worlds and the inevitability of his own required place within those circles, they had made sure to arm him with as many tools as possible. Yet etiquette alone could not be enough. Merely a base upon which to build. Appearance was the next tool he had been given, groomed to understand the effect it could have by his mother. Hairstyles, jewelry choices, clothing, all of these things she had advised him on, showing him how to paint a picture with his natural beauty before he had even grown into it. These were the fundamentals that he had entered Hogwarts with.

Yet it wasn’t until Kazuo had begun to actually interact with other children that he began to truly understand what it was that his parents had been teaching him. It took most of the year for him to come out of his shell, to set aside the lingering resentment he felt at being sent to the strange school, at being torn away from the only way of life he had ever known, to be thrown into a House full of children who confused him. The more he interacted with the other students, the more he began to apply the small lessons his parents had imparted, coming to understand how to draw peoples’ attention with a combination of words and looks. His choice to stand out instead of trying to fit in with the rest of the students had started as a sort of frustrated rebellion, a refusal to bend to conformity. Yet he had come to learn that very defiance of conformity itself was a draw to people.

It certainly didn’t hurt that he had gained a few inches over the year, his childish looks beginning that inevitable transformation into adulthood, still years away but beginning to show in the sharp lines of his cheeks and jaw, in the lengthening of limbs and broadening of shoulders. The beauty that had been a shadowed promise beginning to bloom.

Catch the eye, draw them in, smile, speak the things they expect to hear, dance the dance. Master it and control the flow of the river that is social interaction. Charm your friends and your foes.

Word Count: 448

Link to Ency: [X]
Name of Ability or Race/Talent that you Are Applying for: The Muggle Condition
Describe why this fits your character:

Reducio

Emma is the progeny of both realms, her father being the wizard in the pairing and her mother the Muggle. She got the opportunity to experience it all from a young age and her mom made sure she maintained a constant equilibrium point between the two worlds. It was rather challenging growing up for Emma, as her parents were always competing for dominance over their household, and sequentially if magic could or couldn't be used inside the walls. Her mother had always warned her not to allow magic to steal her life, especially this early. It was a harmful addiction she watched her companion abuse. It not only encouraged laziness but an injurious lifestyle as well.

Blending into the Muggle world was something that'd become important to the family, but it never hard for her. The brunette has quite a few Muggle friends because of her outgoing personality. Going down the zipline at the playground was a tradition for them. They would watch the street performers and play kickball on the asphalt. Being a Muggle seemed easy. Carefree, almost. It was hard to achieve a seamless balance between them.

Even though she grew to play Quidditch in Hogwarts, the brunette liked to fiddle around in other sports like soccer, testing her endurance, and archery, predominantly testing her precision. She also tried to restrict the use of magic at home. She would sweep the halls, and scrub the dishes by hand to keep up with her integrity that was slowly slipping away. The girl had even saved up the money to purchase a cellphone to keep in contact with her mom while she was countries away instead of using the family owl. The trip between London and Brazil was a very long trip...

Taking these alternatives wasn't something she had a problem with, though her father would criticize her actions. She stuck by her mother's word. Remember your roots, she would demand, completely disregarding her other half. Her magical half. These words stuck with her. After all, being half-blooded was her identity. She couldn't throw away the valuable lessons she'd received from her primary school teachers. Even if it was just simple math...

Most importantly, the Eagle learned how to defend herself without the need for magic. She learned how to throw punches, kicks, and call out 'stranger danger.' While her wand did give her a tactical advantage, Emma learned how to protect herself away from school and cut down on her budding addiction to magic. In a strange way, fighting was actually something she prided herself on.

WC: 427/400