InsaneJournal

Sally-Anne Perks for euphorialane
The Player:

Your name: Brandi
Your age: 24
Timezone: Central
AIM contact: brandied plum
OOC journal: zombiephile
Previous RPG experience: NONE AT ALL

The Character:

Name: Sally-Anne Perks
Birthday: 13 April, 1980 / 24
Blood: Pureblood
Former house: Hufflepuff, 1991 - 1998

Sexual orientation: Straight
Marital Status: Single, though still in love with Nate Cadwallader

Nationality: British
Hometown: Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England
Residence: 241 Euphoria Lane, flat 3A

Occupation: Photographer (for British World News, a monthly news magazine based in London)
Financial Status: Decent
Political Affiliation: Ministry of Magic

Social stereotype: Cheerful

Personality: Above anything else, Sally-Anne (who prefers to go by Sally) is cheerful. She is a positive, outgoing, happy person who sometimes seems to see the world through rose-coloured glasses. The glass is half-full, the grass is quite green enough on this side of the fence, and it's always a beautiful day outside, whether it's sunny and bright or gloomy and stormy. She also has an overabundance of energy, with plenty not only for herself, but for at least two other quite energetic people, as well. As a young child, she could never hold still, and this continued throughout her life. She's never been content to just sit idly by, she always has to be doing something. She loves sports of all kinds, particularly Quidditch and football, though she can't play quidditch herself, since she has trouble staying seated on a broomstick. She can often be found in some wide open grassy space or other, kicking around a muggle football, or finding a way to get a quick game together.

She is also something of a flake. Sally frequently puts things down in random places and forgets where they are. She was never quite skilled at Charms in school, so accio is rather hit-or-miss, so she spends lots of time digging around looking for things. It would help somewhat if she was more organized, but it's questionable as to how much that would actually help. For a long time, she was too wild and flaky and free to hold down a "real" job, instead preferring to bounce around as a freelance worker for various publications, but following her broken engagement and five months in South Africa, she has calmed (a bit, maybe just enough energy for herself and one other quite energetic person) and is more able to focus on the task at hand, or at least be fine with going to the same job every day, with real assignments and real deadlines. It just becomes a question of whether or not she remembers where she left her photographs so that she can submit them on time.

Sally is also incredibly loyal to her former house, her friends, and her family (not necessarily in that order). She would do anything including cut off one of her own limbs for them. She was always the person in the stands at Hufflepuff quidditch matches cheering the loudest for the team, with her face all painted in black and yellow (and she would cheer for any friends in other houses who were on their quidditch teams ... so long as they weren't playing against Hufflepuff, then her house loyalties would take off). She even tried to get a Hufflepuff Cheerleading Team started, though she remained the Unofficial Hufflepuff Cheerleader throughout her seven years at Hogwarts. She would also be willing to completely halt her studying or working (though, honestly, that wasn't a hard task in itself) to be there for a friend.

She does, however, have some of that hard-work ethic that the Sorting Hat sang about, it's just kind of buried. She is willing to put the time in, occasionally, to do the work necessary. For example, if she needs to do research on a muggle sport that she doesn't know much about, she'll read up on it, and even find people to try playing it with her. She also tried to work hard in the classes that interested her in school. If it's time to buckle down and take something serious for a while, she'll suck it up and settle down, if only for a little while (but then she's back to bouncing off the walls and running around acting goofy again).

Sally lays all of her cards out on the table. If she feels something, the whole world knows it; she just cannot keep her feelings all bottled up inside. If she was in love, she would quite possibly literally climb onto the roof and shout it out for the world to hear. If something upsets or hurts her, she doesn't bottle it up and hide it away, she lets all the hurt or sad feelings out. Unfortunately, sometimes something hits her hard, and when it does, she loses herself and her way a little. Like when her beloved brother was found out to be a death eater, her whole world felt like it had turned upside down, and she sank into an uncharacteristic despair. She has to find her own way out, make sense of the world, and start jogging along for a while before she's ready to run again.

Childhood: Born on April 13, 1980, Sally-Anne Perks is a middle child. Not the middle child, she shares the position with her brother Jonathan. She has three older brothers: Arthur, born in 1970; Michael, born in 1973; Jonathan, born in 1977; a younger brother: Nicholas, born in 1984; and a younger sister: Elizabeth, born in 1987. Yes, Sally is aware that her family is quite large, but she loves her family and, growing up, she couldn't imagine her life without her siblings around. Arthur and Michael were so much older than Sally and the other three that she tended to be closer to Jonathan, Nicholas, and Elizabeth.

Even though money was tight, there was no shortage of love in the Perks household. Dad Jack was a Quidditch commentator and mom Lauren was a secretary, so while they weren't exactly rolling in the money, they were able to make ends meet with some money left over. Schoolbooks were often recycled down for the younger siblings, but Sally felt a little closer to her older brothers when she used the same books they had used.

The Perks children ended up in widely varied houses. Eldest child Arthur was sorted into Gryffindor (their father's former house) and he became a proud wearer of the red and gold. Next came bookish Michael two years later, sorted into Ravenclaw. Five years later, snobbish and cunning Jonathan was sorted into Slytherin. Two years later, Sally finished the collection of Hogwarts houses when she was sorted into Hufflepuff, her mother's former house. Five years later, Nicholas joined Michael's former house of Ravenclaw, and two years after that, Elizabeth was sorted into the house that her sister had only just vacated, Hufflepuff. Because of the age differences, Sally was only ever at school with Jonathan and Nicholas, but their different houses and years made it hard for them to spend much time together.

But Sally made herself at home in Hufflepuff right away. She made friends with her roommates, and she became the biggest fan of Hufflepuff Quidditch the school had ever seen. Her father had instilled a love of the game in all of his children, but Sally couldn't play it to save her life. So she contented herself with watching the game and being the biggest fan that she could be. She really got into it, painting her face in yellow and black, making banners, cheering until her throat was raw. In her third year, she even tried to get some of the other girls interested in starting up a Hufflepuff Cheerleading Squad, but she couldn't get enough interest. She did continue trying almost every year after that, especially as the war was brewing, because she thought that a bit of extra cheer was just what everyone needed.

In March of her fifth year, Sally was stricken with mononucleosis. She was sent home for the remainder of the term, in part so that she couldn't pass it to anyone else, and in part because she was so fatigued that she couldn't even drag herself out of bed. As a result, she missed taking the O.W.L.s with her yearmates, so her parents petitioned the Ministry of Magic and got special permission for Sally to take the O.W.L.s over the summer, so that she could stay with her friends.

Once Sally had recovered from mono, she returned to school in her sixth year, which wasn't that bad of a year until the end. Sally was shaken by the death of Professor Dumbledore and the battle in the school (in which she didn't take an active part, she was never all that great at classes like Defense and only decent at Charms and would have been more of a hinderance than a help, so she stayed in the Hufflepuff common room and tried to help keep the younger years calm and safe). After a summer of pulling herself together, she returned for her seventh year. Even with everything going on in the wizarding world, with Sally fearing for the lives of her two eldest brothers, who were both Aurors at this point, she still managed to keep her mind on school (and, of course, cheering on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, because they could all use an entertaining and fun distraction from things, especially now) and managed high scores on all of her N.E.W.T.s (which she was able to take with her classmates).

War involvements: All three of the eldest Perks children were involved in the war, though Jonathan's participation wasn't known about until the war was nearly over. Both Arthur and Michael were Aurors, putting their lives on the line to hunt down Voldemort and the Death Eaters. Unbeknownst to the family, Jonathan was one of the very Death Eaters that his older brothers were seeking.

Because of Arthur and Michael's jobs, Sally was very supportive of the ministry and the Aurors during the war, though she didn't take an active part in the war herself. In fact, she tried to stay out of the war as much as possible, focusing instead on doing freelance work as a photographer and writer for Quidditch magazines as well as muggle sports magazines, taking pictures and writing articles on Quidditch and football, delivering entertainment news to the masses, to help provide a much-needed distraction from all the chaos going on -- you simply couldn't focus on the war all the time if you wanted to stay sane, after all.

But then, on January 15, 2000, Michael was involved in the capture of four Death Eaters. One of the DEs was his own younger brother, Jonathan. This revelation sent shockwaves throughout the Perks family. Jonathan didn't even deny what he had done and was shipped off to Azkaban. Both Arthur and Michael were pulled off active duty and investigated by the Ministry of Magic, and Jack, Lauren, Sally, Nicholas, and Elizabeth were all investigated, as well, even though Nicholas and Elizabeth were still only students at Hogwarts. It was a very trying time for the family, and the remaining members banded together for support, leaning on each other and being supports for the others to lean on, too. Sally, Arthur, and Michael all even temporarily moved back into the family home in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England.

Even after the investigation was over, and Arthur and Michael were back on active duty and had moved back out, Sally remained at home with her parents, trying to re-figure her life. Her whole life, she'd been incredibly close to Jonathan, and she sometimes refused to believe that he really was a Death Eater, telling herself that he was under the Imperius Curse, or that other Death Eaters had threatened his family if he didn't cooperate. She just couldn't make sense out of her brother's seeming betrayal. In part, she blamed Slytherin for doing this to her brother, claiming that if he hadn't been sorted there, he wouldn't have become a Death Eater. Whether or not that was true, Sally became distrustful of all Slytherins in general, regardless or how she had thought of them before.

Working as a freelance photographer and writer for a variety of muggle and magical publications (mostly related to sports), Sally moved to Euphoria Lane in April of 2003. It was on the Lane that Sally ran into Nate Cadwallader, with whom she had gone to the Yule Ball in 1994. They began dating and, on 25 December, 2003, he proposed to her and she said yes. However, in early 2004, she was offered a position as a staff photographer at one of the (non-sports) muggle magazines that she had been freelancing for. The only catch was that, for her first assignment, they wanted to send her to South Africa for five months with a research group. Sally was torn, because the opportunity was a wonderful one, but five months away from home and her fiancé (and surrounded by muggles, so the use of magic, especially apparating home for visits, would be impossible) would be almost too much to bear. In the end, what helped to make her decision was when Nate fell in love with another girl on Valentine's Day. Although it was the fault of the rogue cupid on the lane, and it only lasted a half hour, it was still all too much for her, and she decided that she needed to just get away from everything. The engagement was broken, Sally gave Nate back the ring, and she took the job.

Height: 5'10"
Distinguishing marks/features? Sally has a very distinguishing smile. It's wide, open, and friendly, and deep parentheses form around it. Her smile shows up at even the slightest provocation and only goes away under the worst circumstances. She also has a small beauty mark just to the right of her nose. Her hair is long and layered, a pale blonde that darkens a bit during the winter and lightens a bit during the summer. Sally is also on the tall side for girls, measuring in at 5'10", and yet she still occasionally wears high heels when she's dressing up (though she's most comfortable in sneakers).

PB choice: Blake Lively (as little from Gossip Girl as I can manage)
Preferred character journal: perky_one

The Writing

Third person sample:
Sally was back from Africa, and she was back on the Lane. A new flat, by herself this time. It was inexpensive, though, which was the important thing. Of course, all her wages from the past five months had been just sitting around in her new muggle bank account while she'd been gone, since there wasn't exactly much to spend money on in South Africa, though she did bring back some souveniers for her family and friends. She now stood in her new flat, looking around at all the furniture and boxes that had just arrived from storage. It was going to take her forever to unpack everything, and she just wasn't in an unpacking kind of mood. She was finally back in England after five months, and she wanted to get out and find all her friends, and okay, she wanted to find Nate, too.

So leaving her boxes and everything still packed, she left her new flat and headed out onto the Lane. At least everything seemed to still be standing, considering all the weird things that always happened here. The first thing she probably should do would be to head by the Daily Prophet office and order a new subscription, since she'd cancelled hers before leaving for Africa, but it was such a lovely day that all she wanted to do was just to wander down the Lane, and hopefully run into people. And maybe she'd end up back down by 212, even though she didn't know if Nate even still lived there or not. She also needed to buy a paper at some point, so that she could start catching up on everything she missed in the wizarding world while she was gone. But for now, she would just walk.

Additional info:

Where did you hear about us? Bathroom wall. "For a good time, call Dawn Euphoria Lane."

Anything else you think we should know? I talked to Liz, regarding Perky-Cad, and the reasoning behind the broken engagement, and why Sally's been gone for the past five months, etc. and she okayed what I put for the last paragraph of her "war involvements" section.