Pear Holloway

[tartinedeflageolets]

GENERAL

NAME: Paris Holliday Holloway
NICKNAMES: Pear, Peri, Pear Bear.
AGE/DOB: 15 / January 1, 1999 / Capricorn
BLOOD STATUS: Half-blood
GENDER/PRONOUNS: Female, she/her
SEXUALITY: She hasn't given it much thought, which she assumes means that she's some sort of demi or ace. But if you enjoy feeding live insects to plants and spiders, feel free to inquire within. Maybe you aren't a complete waste of time!!
HOMETOWN: Turtle River, Minnesota. A speck of a town in Northern Minnesota which hides a larger wizarding community and the main Owl Post distribution hub for the Great Lakes region. Turtle River has been trying to convince people that it's 'The Olympus of the North', but it's mostly government employees who willingly endure the harsh Minnesota winters.

CONCEPT: Little Miss Sunshine loves unicorns, feeds starving children steady diet of flies.

PHYSICAL

APPEARANCE: Pink, pink, and more pink. Maybe throw in some pastal purple or green too. Pear's preferred fashion style is girly to the extreme with cardigans and cutesie patterned tops making frequent appearances. Her (naturally!!) blonde hair is typically worn straight or in a pony tail and she prefers to wear a more standard frame shape for her glasses than London does, but they are typically some shade of pink. Her skintone is more golden than one would expect of a Northern Minnesotan and reflects her latina heritage via her paternal grandmother.

Pear's favorite piece of clothing is her Spriggan Scout vest which is covered in the various badges she's accumulated over the years. It has one (1) illegal badge sewn onto it - a black bear on a purple background.

She has a heavy accent that leaves no doubt about where she hails from.

HEIGHT: 5'10"

PB: Victoria Vida

PERSONALITY

LIKES: All things pink & irridescent, unicorns, Bluebell, cheerleading, Spriggan Scouts, watching the sunrise, tater tot hot dish, pins, patches & merit badges, rollerskating, roller derby, bug catching, carnivorous plants, her sweet baby Charlotte, anatomy, jinxes and hexes

DISLIKES: People wishing her 'Happy Birthday' on London's birthday, anyone who can actually get near Bluebell, sharing anything, talking about boys, her wand, buttercream frosting, cats

PERSONALITY:

There's been many notable Parises over the years. Paris of Troy, Count Paris, some city in France, and Paris Hilton are certainly some of the more distinguished among them. But who cares about those Parises when we could be talking about Paris Holloway? Sure, she didn't cause a bunch of people to go to war and get killed because she thought Helen was hot and she didn't help propel a couple of teenagers into a double suicide to avoid marrying her and she certainly doesn't have a—. Okay, yeah, I'm going to stop right there. But look, she has her redeeming qualities too!!

For starters, Paris Holloway is a Model Citizen. The proof? Fact: The Spriggan Scout code encourages girls to be honest, respectful, resourceful, strong, friendly, earth conscious, and courageous. Totally also a fact: Pear Holloway is a très excellent Spriggan Scout. Therefore! Pear Holloway embodies all of these things!! Don't believe her? She has badges to prove it and she's more than happy to show them to you!!

Okay, okay, Pear Holloway might not actually be the perfect embodiment of the Spriggan Scout code. (Hard to believe, but true.) In fact, Pear Holloway is kind of an asshole. (Libel!! Slander!! She's a model citizen!!) Sure, there's sugar and everything nice, but someone tipped over that bottle of spice and Pear aggressively tries to compensate for it. She's just so Gosh Darn Nice, don'tcha know? The internal flowchart in Pear's brain goes something like: "Are you about to say something nice?" if yes, "Okay, say it." if no, "Think really hard about how to put a positive spin on this!!" Pear Holloway would argue that "Sir Mix-a-lot would love it!!" is a perfectly acceptable response to "Does this make my butt look big?" Similarly, "That dress is such a brave choice!!" is totally a compliment!!

So fine, okay, other redeeming qualitities. How about the fact that Pear Holloway doesn't accept defeat? (Which is totally not just a nice way of saying that she's overbearing and stubborn!!) If someone doesn't like her, that's fine. She'll just keep smothering them (& trampling them & mauling them & killing them) with kindness until they change their mind. Because she's friendly!! It's in the code!!

And if that's not impressive enough, how about the fact that she's up like clockwork every day at 6AM, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to go without a hint of caffeine in her system. Is someone having a slow start to the day? Don't worry!! Pear is here to motivate them and make sure they're not late for class with an Extra Dose of Sunshine!! Oh, and she's also extremely accomodating!! And always willing to help out a friend!! Even if it means she has to stay up an extra four hours tonight to catch up on her reading!! She's not being inconvenienced at all!! She said yes, that's not being passive-aggressive!!

Okay, so maybe she's not always completely accomodating. Pear Holloway really hates is not a fan of strongly prefers other activities than sharing. Since the moment she was born, she's been sharing everything with her twin sister London. And then Dresden. And then Yancey. And Pear would just really like it if you didn't touch any of Her Things. Those are Hers and she worked very hard to get them. Yes, even her dessert that she isn't eating. Because she's totally eating it now because it's hers!!

And fine, here's a secret, Pear Holloway might have a lot of pent-up aggression. Look, it's hard always being so Gosh Darn Nice. And there's nothing in the Spriggan Scout code that says you have to be perfect — or that you can't enjoy burying your negative emotions until you take them out on the playing field!! Unfortunately, Pear's ideal playing field involves lacing up her skates and knocking other girls over and that's not an option most of the year. Alternative outlets include stomping through the forest (She's just taking a nature hike!!) and mangling things with scissors (They slipped!!), but they just aren't quite the same. She's very much looking forward to shinny season.

Oh fer geez, were unicorns not mentioned yet? Pear is completely bananas about unicorns. Bluebell still won't let Pear get near her and it is a Problem and Pear just can't understand why this is happening to her. Pear is basically The Best and she has so many admirable traits so how could Bluebell possibly not love her??

Hey Bluebell, have you heard that Pear's a brand new baby prefect this year?? It's a très grand honor!! She got a pin!! (And Ebonhide is home of future Head Girls!!) Pear's still navigating what being a prefect means, but in general she sees her position far more as Role Model than Disciplinarian. Not that she won't enforce rules when she has to, but while Spriggan Scouts are taught to respect authority, it's merely one facet of the code. She thinks the quote "Never let anyone treat you like a yellow starburst. You are a pink starburst." is deeply profound and motivational and likes to quote it to her girls regularly.

For all the pink, sunshine, and unicorns, Pear's kind of creepy when you dig past that. She has a deep maternal instinct which doesn't seem so odd, but she focuses it intensely on caring for her carnivorous plants and pet tarantula and downright revels in feeding time. To Pear, they're all fascinating examples of the life cycle and she raised most her plants from seedlings and that basically makes them her children!! Pear's also generally interested in the macabre, finding skeletons and anatomy and dark spell effects on the body quite intriguing and educational. Gaining access to the Borgin family library would basically be her dream come true. Pear doesn't dwell too much on the fact that someone had to endure everything before it could be written about. That's science!!

SKILLS

LANGUAGES SPOKEN: English only, but this doesn't stop her from peppering her speech with random French words to sound très sophisticated!! Her Spanish level is roughly on par with her French, which her grandmother is unimpressed with. Despite Minnesota being known for its Norwegian heritage, it's mostly concentrated in other areas of the state and she really only knows those words that have become general slang. Uff da!!

PATRONUS: Pear is unable to cast a corporeal patronus.

SKILLS:
— Carnivorous Plant Cultivation. Pear's long been fascinated by carnivorous (no-maj) plants and has been growing and caring for several species since she was a child. She takes a great deal of joy in catching bugs and feeding them to her plants and will talk at length about them like a proud mother. Each plant is kept in some sort of cutesie pot which seem at odds with the plants nature. She has a soft spot for sundews, having started with them when she first got into the hobby, but of course Josephine, her Venus flytrap, is the most dramatic one to watch her feed. Allez cuisine!!
— Roller Derby. Pear wanted a unicorn roller skating party for her 9th birthday, but it was London's year to pick themes. Her mother took her to a roller derby match to make up for it. It definitely wasn't the same thing, but that turned out to be a good thing? The combination of violence and female comradery of roller derby really struck a chord with Pear who needed an outlet for some of her pent-up aggression found it so empowering!! Pear participates in a youth league during the summer as a blocker and used to skate under the name Gory Talbott, but then she became roommates with Corrigan and that made things weird. Unfortunately Gooseberry's grounds don't really facilitate skating so she doesn't get much practice during the school year.
— Jinxes and hexes. Pear loves going to the library and pouring over an old tome of jinxes and hexes, especially if the volume comes with illustrations. While her own practice is generally limited to sibling-torment-via-leek-ears, she knows a lot about them in theory and could reasonably identify common and uncommon ones cast in front of her.
— Wilderness Skills. Pear's been a member of the Spriggan Scouts since first grade and has a whole lot of badges proving she's completed training in a variety of approved wilderness skills. She can debone and fillet a fish. She can start a fire and navigate by the stars. She can shoot a bow and arrow and not get stranded in the middle of the lake while paddling a boat.
— Strong Stomach. It takes a lot to make Pear squeamish.

HISTORY

FAMILY MEMBERS:

Malloreigh Holloway (nee [OPEN]), mother. Half-blood. Artist/Graphic Designer (Part-Time). She's an artist. Pear isn't.
Ramiro Holloway, father. Half-blood. Deputy Owlmaster, Great Lakes region. Ramiro's appointment has come very recently, having previously worked his way up the ranks through all the unglamorous owl-keeping jobs you can think of. Pear is very much a daddy's girl and considers owl feeding time quality father-daughter bonding.
London Holloway, twin sister. Azurcrest Sophomore. Beans is great, but she's even better when she's over theeeere.
Dresden Holloway, sister. Coppertale Freshman. A monster. Don't blink.
Yancey Montgomery, half-brother. Ribbonfin Senior. Shipped off to Scotland last year, was marked Return to Sender.

HISTORY:

[For additional family history, see Yancey Montgomery. Twin history co-written with Cheryl. ♥]

On New Year's Eve in 1998, Malloreigh Holloway was not enjoying getting trashed with her friends. In the final minutes of the year, she was giving birth to her daughter, London. Her other daughter, Paris, was late to the party and didn't arrive until after the ball had dropped. (This caused quite the conundrum when the girls were old enough for classmates to play the "What year were you born in?" game.)

Nine months earlier, neither Malloreigh nor Ramiro would have guessed they'd be welcoming twin girls into the world but "sometimes these things happen." And sometimes they actually work out? Despite only dating for a short period of time and a child in the mix from Malloreigh's first marriage, they decided to give the whole marriage thing a shot. The combined incomes of a part-time artist and a post owlery clerk weren't anything to get excited about, but they were able to obtain a mortgage and a modestly sized home just in time to start preparing a nursery for their third daughter's arrival.

What was modestly sized when the twins were barely toddlers, quickly became cramped as they got older and throughout all the room shuffling as nursery was converted to little boy's room, the one constant was that London and Paris were always together. After all, they were twins, so it would be cruel to separate them! They wore all the same clothes (and squabbled constantly over whose identical pink shirt was whose), they went all the same places (because they were at the mercy of large humans who could pick them up and move them as desired), they were just two adorable peas in a pod, don'tcha know?

Two peas in a small pod. Two peas that WERE different, thank-you-very-much. Both girls looked forward to starting day school, the opportunity to get away from the crowded family home! Make new friends! Do new things! It worked about as well as could be expected; they ended up in the same classes, with the same friends.

The first time Pear saw one of her classmates dressed in her Spriggan Scout Pixie uniform, she would Not. Stop. Yammering. about it to her parents. After some discussion, Pear got her way and Ramiro even volunteered to help co-lead the local troop to spend more time with his daughters. And because the twins had to do everything together, London was enrolled as well. (Isn't this FUN, Beans??)

Pear loved everything about being a Spriggan Scout. The uniforms, the badges, the cookie selling, the field trips. She threw herself into it 100% and it was on one of those field trips to a nearby state park that Pear was introduced to carnivorous plants for the first time. Instantly enamoured with this most unlikely of predators, her subsequent Gardener badge project was a little off-beat. It could have ended there. Badge in hand, she could have forgotten all about her plants; but they were hers, grown from seedlings, and something finally that she didn't have to share with London or anyone else.

After years of being taunted by Yancey's empty bedroom every other week, it became a fulltime deal when he headed off to Ilvermorny when the twins were nine. For two years that bedroom stayed empty throughout the school year, and then finally it was their turn. This was great! Seeing as how they were soooooo different, there was no way they could end up in the same house. Except.. they did. One twin to Wampus, then the other, and the curse of sharing the same room continued.

The twins were together all the time. They took many of the same classes, did a lot of the same activities, and shared friends. Their friends and teachers often couldn’t tell them apart, and that’s when they even tried. They were just Paris-and-London. They loved each other, of course, but it was too much. Like that empty bedroom, the appeal of space and a separate identity taunted them. Unbeknownst to each other, and feeling a little guilty about it, both girls applied to Gooseberry.

And they both got in. It was exciting and frustrating and at least neither of them had to discuss the guilt of trying to leave the other one behind.

And finally they had a little more control over their destinies. When London emerged from the sorting cave and was announced as an Azurcrest, Paris knew this was the big chance they'd been waiting for. There wasn't a moment of hesitation over whether or not this is really what the twins wanted. As soon as Paris entered the cave, she kindly informed Azurcrest it would not need to present an argument.

So, sure, they still had a lot of the same classes and made a lot of the same friends, but once curfew struck each night, they were as far away from each other as possible. It was a small victory and totally worth it.

Everything was going great, and then the Worst Possible Thing Ever Happened. No, it wasn't half the school getting kidnapped. This was before that. No, the worst day of Pear Holloway's life was the day that Bluebell arrived at Gooseberry and every one of Pear's little girl dreams were crushed when Bluebell wanted absolutely nothing to do with anyone except a sophomore named Gabi Flores. The next day, Bluebell still wanted nothing to do with Pear. And the next day and the next, and on and on.

The actually agreed-upon most horrific event of the school year was.. well, Pear slept through all of that and went home the next day. So, haunted school with kidnappings was definitely not ideal, but the alternative was... going back to Ilvermorny? Back to shared bedrooms? Back to mystery meat lunches? Back to NO UNICORNS? It wasn't an option. Besides, if Pear didn't go back to Gooseberry, how would she ever claim the title of Bluebell's favorite?

SCHOOL

YEAR: Sophomore (Grade 10)
HOUSE: Ebonhide (Former Wampus)
SORTING: Azurcrest never stood a chance. Once London's sorting was announced, Azurcrest was immediately struck from the list of contenders. Ribbonfin appealed to the lifelong Spriggan Scout while Coppertale spoke to her inner derby girl, but neither felt like the right fit. In the end, Ebonhide seemed like a good compromise, where she could be both and also be a total weirdo about the things she loves.
WAND: Northern white cedar, Rougarou hair core, 11 1/4 inches, durable. Pear's wand is quite finicky and she's convinced it enjoys egging her on, performing best when she's struggling to keep her frustration in check.
FAMILIAR: A Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula named Charlotte. Charlotte's tank features charmed-pink substrate, a large pink skull to hide inside, and a unicorn statue (just to keep her from feeling lonely). Her tank is magically secured so there is no risk of dramatic escapes!!

CLASSES: (core) Charms, Herbology, Outdoor Education, Potions, Transfiguration; (electives) Defense Against the Dark Arts, Magizoology. (advanced) Muggle Technology Studies.
ADVANCED STUDY: Muggle Technology Studies (Advanced). While Pear has long-term aspirations to attend no-maj university in an as-of-yet-determined life science program, her short-term interest in the class is the chance to pick up some sweet, sweet STEM-related Spriggan Scout badges. (And if Beans asks Extra Nice, she might indulge her in a classic twin switcheroo so she can cruise the internet.)
SENIOR PROJECT: Undertermined, but probably won't be something you want to review while eating lunch.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: Pear's artistic skills are severely lacking and unlike her other siblings, her scholarship to Gooseberry is largely driven by her academic record. Pear works hard for every A she gets, knowing the alternative is being sent back to Ilvermorny. She has a strong mind for science and concepts, but her actual spellcasting is spotty. Her strongest classes are Outdoor Education and Herbology. Her weakest class is Charms, which she finds especially frustrating, since its such a core skill to every witch and wizard. While she's never earned less than a B in her life, her grade in the subject last year was considerably helped by Mr. C-B's liberal grading standards.

EXTRACURRICULARS:
— Cheer. Exercise!! Cute outfits!! Encouraging her roommates to utterly destroy people!! Paris is new to the squad this year.
— Crafting. Pear joined the newly created Crafting Club because she needs access to all those sweet, sweet crafting supplies if she's going to keep owling home her merit badge projects. Her actual crafting skills are decidedly poor.
— Equestrian. She mostly attends as an extra chance to see Bluebell. Maybe this time Bluebell will actually let her near her!!
— Gardening. It's not hard to guess what she fills her garden plot with and she adores stopping by to check on her plants and take care of them.
— Duelling & Fencing. Pear thought Sylla was one of the coolest people ever before she stabbed herself in the stomach. Pear is notably aggressive during duels, sometimes pushing the limits of acceptable sportsmanship. She doesn't attend fencing weeks.
— Outdoor Exploration. It's just like Spriggan Scouts!! It's.. very possible that Pear wears her Spriggan Scout vest during OE.
— LARP. Sibling bonding.

Aside from Gooseberry extracurriculars, Pear is an active member of the Spriggan Scout organization and has been since she was in 1st grade. As should be obvious by now, Spriggan Scouts are wizarding flair Girl Scouts. They earn charmed badges, sell cookies that would make Honeydukes proud, and strive to live by the Spriggan Scout law. When Pear joined the organization, she was considered a Pixie. She's now considered a Dryad.

OOC

NAME: Manx
EMAIL: mahoushoujomanx @ gmail
CDJ: nah
OTHER PREFERRED CONTACT: dropbox
TIME ZONE: EST