horcrux - a character cdj

meryl gaunt

Fri, 30 May 2008 06:14:58 GMT

MERYL GAUNT

Name: Meryl Medusa Gaunt
Age: 16
Bloodline: Pureblooded.
Former House: She never went.
Sexuality: Heterosexual, she never really had much experience with women.

Physical Appearance:
Meryl stands at five foot one with a very gaunt-shape, her face is small and slightly heavy making her look relatively delicate. She has very flat hair that is never cut evenly but is always in her face, dull eyes each in a different shade; one blue and the other green. Upon closer inspection to her body, one might see old scars on her legs, back and possibly arms from years of manhandling from her father and brother. The girl isn't very expressive, she keeps her head down or lower, eyes darting around and unless it's shocking, she usually looked incredibly sad but it's hard to tell unless she's frowning. She can be considered unattractive due to her thin build, dirty clothing, and generally unhappy disposition.

She is usually found wearing long, dark dresses that tend to be ratty and frayed at the bottom from wearing them for such long periods of time. It is easy to assume that while she cares for being clean, she doesn't care for what she wears or how she looks.

Friends: None
Family: Tom Marvolo Riddle, Marvolo Gaunt jr., Morfin Gaunt, Hesper Black, Sirius Black, Lycoris Black, Arcturus Black, Regulus Black
Enemies: I'd say just her brother and father.

Personality (include strengths and weaknesses):
The girl is reclusive, submissive and a push-over. She lets people push her around and has no real back bone, she's paranoid. Meryl spent alot of her life working against the grind of her father and brother, the two of them did an awful lot to hurt her. Meryl doesn't like to be grabbed, jerked, shouted at or any form of negative feedback from something she's done and this behavior makes her watch what everyone does. Meryl can't sit back and feel like she's not doing something wrong, while none of this is apparent on her face it is usually obvious that she's not happy but no one would know why. The girl is in her head all of the time, she doesn't try to tell anyone her opinion as she feels everything she says might be wrong a simple answer might come from her if inquired.

Meryl is socially awkward and comes off being very sad, often being unable to feel anything else as most of her life was majorly unhappy. The problem with this is that she's easily influenced by people's opinions, gullible and doesn't really know how to say "no". She completely lacks a backbone and she never says what's on her mind, she'd rather hide it and keep it hidden forever. Due to these complications, she is unusual and feels the need to escape from most situations, choosing to run away than to fight or fend off the problem.

This world was everyone else's and Meryl just lived in it, with no one paying her mind or thought. Meryl is painfully shy and unsociable, not to mention afraid of most people around her. She is also very clumsy, especially when near her family or people that make her nervous. She speaks so little that some people would be inclined to think her completely mute, but that is not the case. While she does seem to have alot of things that work against her, she has a lot of other things that don't.

Meryl has empathy, compassion, creativity and a form of wisdom. She was brought up having to think on her feet and is a great observer of the human body, gestures and expression. Lying to Meryl is very difficult to do because she reads the body and not the words coming from the mouth, though if one distracts her enough that is the only way to confuse her. Meryl has a great feeling for people and even though they all seem dangerous to her, she wants nothing but the best for them and if it doesn't cause her any real pain, she'll help in any way she can. Most would believe her to be stupid, but she is very simple and when she talks it's easy to understand what she means, it comes very naturally for her to give a comforting or advising word.

I'd also like to mention that while she's not particularly or severely inbred, she and her brother have Heterochromia. Heterochromia is a eye defect in which the colour of the eyes were split due to a genetic problem, it is often found in people and animals who are inbred.

History:
Morfin Gaunt and Lycoris Black getting together was nothing short of a damned miracle. The couple were arranged by Hesper Black, she tried her best to match the pair for the soul purpose of bringing the Gaunts back into the social circle. The two were very particular and Morfin was often abrasive and unkind to Lycoris, but she was a strong person and was more than able to handle Morfin's sociopathism for the sake of the family. However, the problem lied within the mind of Sirius Black as he didn't want to send his only daughter off with those vicious, nasty, filthy Gaunts. Marvolo and Sirius argued often, more often than what was normal amongst parents, the only reason they weren't at each other's throat was because of Hesper to begin with. Marvolo wasn't fond of both his children breeding with Blacks(Merope/Arcturus, Morfin/Lycoris) because he felt that their blood wasn't as pure as his.

The two of them fought so hardly that Hesper couldn't get Sirius or Marvolo to settle themselves, Sirius ended both arrangements and closed himself off to the Gaunts. Morfin and Merope were told that they were going to half to marry each other by Marvolo, he was angry and wanted to continue the line. Morfin honestly didn't want to breed with his sister but he had no choice, he was an awful young man and frequently touched her without her permission. It wasn't until the time where he saw Merope hanging out the window at Tom Riddle.

Morfin had to stop it. He hexed the muggle and then him and Marvolo were sent to jail for a little while, Morfin longer than his father. He spent three years in prison and came back to find his father crouched over his favourite chair, a note from Merope, a note from Marvolo and finding himself as the only heir. Morfin was almost thirty by this time and now that there were possibly no problems to arise with both Merope and Marvolo out of the picture, Hesper came back to try again and reason with Morfin. Now that he was old enough to make his choices on his own, he did just that and the two were married. Morfin refused to live in the Black House, he didn't feel right and he refused to let Lycoris live there as well.

The marriage was an awful mess and Morfin barely made any attempts to attend any Black family get-togethers, he almost refused and sent her. The two of them constantly fought and had it not been for Lycoris' assertive ways, she would have ended up as a beaten wife, their marriage soon came to an end in 1939. By that time Lycoris popped out two children one with the namesake of Morfin's father, Marvolo and the other named on something they agreed one that followed the Gaunt tradition, Meryl. The family wasn't very tight-knit, Lycoris left him and the kids after the birth of Meryl, she couldn't take the way he was acting and the kids were considered 'disowned' by the Blacks. That's the reason that Lycoris is stated as never being married or having any children.

Just like his father, Morfin forced the son, Marvolo to tend to his daughter, much like he was forced to do for his sister. Morfin, ironically, had became his father; a drunk, abusive, uncaring man who was absorbed with blood purity. The children weren't allowed to speak regular English at home and Marvolo spoke very English himself, they spent most of their time speaking Parselmouth. Meryl was often the blame of many of the problems in the house and was left by herself to self-soothe or whipped, even at a young age, by her father for things that shouldn't be blamed on a baby. Meryl's childhood was nothing short of being horrible, with her brother five years older than her, she was often left behind or was left at home. As you can tell, Morfin was not a good father and appeared to only be selfish to his son, Marvolo. The Gaunt house was filled with violence towards the children, often not reprimanding Marvolo for his behavior and being severe with the younger child.

By the time that she was four years old, she was often cooking, cleaning and forced to do all kinds of man-like labor. Meryl was finally offered a simple freedom, while her brother was off at tutoring with some witch Morfin knew, she was left at home with her father. A young man had busted into the house claiming to be is her cousin more or less, the two argued and then a quick spell knocked her father out. Meryl watched in fear and before she had the chance to say anything, she tried to revive her father and nothing happened. When he arrived, she had left the house and ran away into the nearby forest thickets, it was a good hiding place as many people would have difficulty trying to get inside of it without destroying it. Meryl stayed there for a long time, a few days even and refused to leave until the officials left the forest, eventually it was her brother that found her. Marvolo was angry because she caused a lot of trouble because the officials couldn't find her, he ended up whooping on her himself in his frustration. The two lived together and had frequent visits from Hesper, but as far as Marvolo was concerned, it was his house now and his pathetic sister was his property. The only time Hesper was allowed in the house was if something was really wrong with them, the two of them were uneducated and learned how to read and write just barely due to her coming around. Hesper had tried so hard to get the Gaunt family back into the pureblood circle that she felt it was partially her fault and now her grandchildren seemed to be suffering from it.

They barely had any money and what they did have was from Hesper giving them money to buy food. Marvolo never went shopping, he forced his sister to go and often put her in danger by doing that. Meryl hated going alone because people stared at her due to the bruises and cuts left on her by her older brother, sending a 9-10 year old to shop had always been a mistake anyways, it was a surprise that she was never kidnapped. The two lived together for a long time with small amount of help from Hesper, always in secret and had it not been for her, they would not have had wands. Finally, Marvolo moved out and stole some of the food money and nobody knew where he went, leaving Meryl alone.

Hesper stopped visiting as she assumed that Meryl was forced to go with him, so she had to scrounge around for food in the forest. That is where she is at currently, she's sixteen and living in that rut of a house.

Extras.
PB: Emily Perkins
What do you plan to do with this character?: I'd like for her to get out into the word and live a little, I'd like for her to meet Tom and confront what happened and why he did that to her father. I think the animosity between them would be splendiferous!

Samples.
Sample:
She quietly stood there, her eyes lowered a little to the ground. To be honest, she wasn't really into whatever was going on as she couldn't really say that she had companions to greet. Thus, even if she didn't, Meryl would not go to them as she wasn't invited to the party. She hardly expected someone to arrive and talk to her, she was fine just observing.

However, little did she know that she would be approached.

When a red haired man came in front of her, her inbred looking eyes of blue and green stayed against the ground and slowly up to his face. Meryl hardly ever stood straight, just like now, she was slouched and just stared at the mug in front of her. Truthfully, she had a serious lack of social skills and it took her a little while to take the mug from him. Meryl easily reached for it like a wild animal lurking towards the one who had food for her. There would be no lie, the mug felt warm in her hands and she closed her eyes for a moment as if she were going to melt from it.

"You...brought this for me? -- I..guess, I am okay." She didn't sound like she believed it herself. Noticing that he seemed to be relatively friendly, she had nothing to say and it made her feel slightly foolish. In the back of her head, she couldn't contemplate why someone had done something so nice and for NO particular reason.

dennsi bishop

Thu, 29 May 2008 09:45:54 GMT