Gooseberry Characters

[juliajoy]

Clem Decourt • neattrick

Ebonhide senior. Quidditch chaser and co-captain, alongside Ulysses Quayle.

If you're looking for Clem, you'll find her on the Quidditch pitch. She's been on the team since her freshman year, and she's got a pro job lined up for herself after she graduates. She's here on a sports scholarship, and takes her schoolwork seriously for this reason and this reason only. Her father Billy Decourt was the star player for the successful Quodpot team from Louisiana, the Shreveport Shriekers, and was a major sports celebrity in the US in the mid-2000's. As of winter break, Clem herself has been tapped to play for the Klamath Krakens, an Oregon-based Quidditch team.

Her mother's family, the Bellamys, are world-known for owning the Gold Gulch Lumber Company, the world's largest supplier of wand-quality redwood. Her cousin, Hartson Bellamy, who is an Azurcrest freshman, is a herbology prodigy and expected to take over this business. Her maternal grandfather, Nathaniel Bellamy, has been the mayor of Gold Gulch for decades and is notorious in the California political scene for being a magical libertarian of sorts.

Previous to attending Gooseberry, Clem attended Ilvermorny as a Wampus, where she was a roommate of Mackenzie Prince. Although they were friends during their younger years, they have since had a falling out and do not get along. Clem also has an infamously poor relationship with Ulysses Quayle, who has been her Quidditch teammate since their Ilvermorny days. Former Ilvermorny students may also remember that Clem and Gweneth Popplestone once got into a fistfight on the Ilvermorny campus.

Clem is dating Sylvester Stoker, and has been since December of last year. Her best friend is Vee Powers, although she's very close with all her roommates and most of the Ebonhide senior boys as well.

In class and during club activities, Clem is a loud and gregarious presence. She has no brain-to-mouth filter, and frequently suffers point deductions for derailing class discussions. Although she's opinionated, she's also fairly laid back, and it takes a lot to genuinely wind her up. Her favorite class is artificing. She's making a broom from scratch as her senior project, and often spends downtime in the artificing shed. She also enjoys magizoology and herbology, and will be the first person to volunteer for "gross" tasks such as handling slimy creatures or sticking her hands into a pile of fertilizer.

REECE DOWNING • peanutbuttercup

Azurcrest senior and prefect. Reece has been the Azurcrest boys' prefect since his sophomore year.

Introverted and sensitive, Reece sometimes get lost in the crowd of his very outgoing classmates. But despite his shyness, Reece is mostly interested in having a good time. He hates conflict, and can't stand his classmates fighting. As a prefect, he aspires to be a confidant and neutral party and someone anyone feels comfortable bringing their problems to. As of this year, he's a little stricter with the rules as written; after the endgame events of year one, which he slept through, he's grappling to find some sense of control over his classmates' safety.

Reece's older sister Cristiane Downing was also an Azurcrest, and founding member of LARP club. She was two years above Reece and graduated in 2013. She married Ricardo Ramirez, Coppertale 2013 graduate, who is the brother of Rafael Ramirez, Coppertale 2014 graduate. Without his older sister and in-laws around, Reece is finally striking out on his own, although he's still a dedicated member of LARP.

His mother is the chief of staff to the MACUSA rep from New York. His family is very wealthy, although their money comes from his no-maj father's side of the family. The Downings are anti Statue of Secrecy, a controversial stance in the wizard world. Reece has been tasked by the parents with looking after Samantha Sweeney, the daughter of the MACUSA rep from NY. Reece is also an old family friend of Ulysses Quayle, and a good friend of Ferdie Ayers, despite family tensions between the Ayerses and the Downings/Sweeneys.

He's been dating Roxie Barringer since April of last year, although he's had a big crush on her since his sophomore year. Although his older sister regularly tried to set him up with girls, Roxie is his first girlfriend.

Reece is a friendly if quiet presence around campus. He's usually doing his homework last-minute at lunch and breakfast, and if you need a quiet spot to stop procrastinating and finish your work too, you're always welcome. He's close with his fellow prefect Zach Zhang, and often spends free periods with him in the history of magic classroom. He is especially kind with freshmen and anyone suffering homesickness or general anxiety about school and social lives.

He makes little mechanical toys and gadgets as a hobby. Last year, a bunch of his clockwork bugs escaped and he needed help rounding them up. The spider is still out there somewhere. He also made a giant Rube Goldberg machine in the Atrium with the help of Xavier Lewis, Jesse McBride, and Essie Morales-Tran as a end-of-term prank last year.

ARIADNE FLINT • novelling

Ebonhide junior. Student editor of the school newspaper, the Guthrie Gazette, which she inherited and renamed after graduate Asher Guthrie.

Ari is at Gooseberry on exchange from Hogwarts, where she was a Slytherin. The daughter of former Death Eaters and Sacred 28 family blood purists, Ari was emotionally abused by her parents for being half-blooded, thanks to her mother being an illegitimate child. They recently disowned her, and she now lives with her older brother in London.

At Hogwarts, Ariadne was a terrible bully, and harassed many Hogwarts and exchange students (including Riley Stamper, Phineas Bones, Ennis Harper, Eve Bagman, and Noel Finnigan-Thomas). She was friends with Calvin Evercreech, after a fashion, in that they were both part of the bully clique. She continued this behavior through her sophomore year at Gooseberry, making particular friends in Mackenzie Prince and Jade Otterwell.

After the endgame events of year one and being disowned by her parents, she's much more reserved and passive this year. Still haughty and judgmental, she mostly keeps to herself. She is still best friends with Jade (and also, maybe, in love with her? She doesn't want to think about it) and is also close with Bash Lacroix and Lucas Kowalski, for some reason. They got her hooked on Star Wars.

In class, Ariadne is quiet and pensive. She only speaks if she has something good to say or knows she's correct, and she absolutely despises being wrong. If she ever has to do group work with anyone besides Jade or Lucas, she's reticent and unhelpful about it. Despite her reserved and stiff demeanor, she's part of Casey Patterson's dungeons and dragons campaign, which she unironically enjoys.

Ariadne is gay, and deeply in the closet about it. She's had brief encounters of the kissing kind with Corrigan Bailey and Ruby Oberholtzer, and also has a hate-crush on Charlotte Meer. Perceptive students might notice her leering at them or other cute girls a little too often, but don't expect her to talk about it. As of January, she's dating Jade, but they're keeping it a secret for now. They went to prom together, so this is now public knowledge.

JD PITCHFORD • electable

Ribbonfin junior. Prefect. OE TA. Quidditch Reserve.

JD's one half of a set of twins, and more or less inseparable from her brother Jonah. Despite how close the two of them are, they're polar opposites in apparent personality. Where her brother is grumpy and taciturn, JD is open, warm and friendly. More than anything else, JD hates looking bad, whether it be a messy uniform or a mean remark overheard by the wrong person. While she comports herself perfectly, she expects the same behavior from her brother, her cabinmates, and her friends, and she can sometimes be overbearing.

As the Outdoor Education TA, JD is a naturally sporty person, even if her lack of a competitive streak means that she's not the career athlete type. She's a reserve for the Quidditch team, an active member of Outdoor Exploration club, a regular fencing club attendee, and has her own hobbies too. If you're looking for a jogging partner, JD is always up for the task. In fact, she's more likely to seek out your company. She and her girlfriend Ophelia Noggins are frequent co-conspirators on the topic of getting their classmates to be more outdoorsy.

JD has political aspirations, and wants to be a prosecutor for MACUSA and eventually the state rep for New Hampshire, her home state. She's a straight-A student with a flawless transcript; some topics come naturally to her, and she works hard at the rest of them. While she's always willing to help her classmates with their homework, she sometimes has trouble empathizing with people who aren't able to adhere to the academic grind like she is; she frequently criticizes her brother for being "lazy" where he just has a different learning style from her.

Besides her brother and Ophelia, her close friends include her cabinmates and the Ribbonfin junior boys. Senior prefect Rosy Stoker is her mentor/lifespiration, and JD will absolutely narc on the junior class to Rosy if she has to. Her older sister Betsy was a Gooseberry alum and a close friend of Daniel Notoriano's brother, and their families are still close.

TODD SKYNNER • quickbuck

Coppertale junior. Cheer mascot. Junior class rep for Event Committee. Stage manager for drama club.

This year, Todd's a little bit... all over the place. He's not sure of anything about his identity, from what he wants to do with his life to what his sexuality is to who he's friends with, and it's driven him into a months-long identity crisis. He's loud, always talking, and absolutely needs positive attention to thrive.

A muggleborn from a very boring suburb of Las Vegas, Todd has been very best friends with Cash Holcomb since Cash told him he was probably a wizard when they were like 7. They're thick as thieves and consider each other family. Todd is extremely overprotective of Cash, and if he feels like people aren't respecting Cash's space, he gets very weird about it.

His friend group is largely the Coppertale Juniors, although he's also friends with Calvin Evercreech (they're also ex-kissing friends, and it's not even weird for him). He also hangs out with Micah St. Clair a lot thanks to mutual friends and drama club, although he's extremely weird about Micah, with whom he has some kind of ill-defined probably-not-friendly rivalry. His most recent romantic entanglement is with Austin McNamara, and they're just... bad and awkward. Someone help them, please.

He's a class clown, and will often argue devil's advocate just for the sake of it. He was the president of the speech and debate club at his middle school, and it shows. He's that guy you had in every class in high school. You know that guy.

Things Todd is notorious for around campus: being a sloppy kisser and lightweight drunk at Grotto parties, being able to turn into a coyote, owning his very own car and never shutting up about it, wanting to sell you weird borderline contraband like bootleg DVDs of recent theatrical releases with Chinese subtitles, and being the (now-former) object of affection to Molly, a ghost that lives in the basement. She tried to marry him.

NATALIE PRINCE • heresie

Ribbonfin sophomore. Teacher's assistant for music.

Tally is the little sister of Mackenzie Prince, and the cousin of Kurt Wolfhart. Her family is extremely wealthy, and old-money, giving them a standing somewhat comparable to USA purebloods, although they are very decidedly halfblooded. Tally hasn't ever thought much of this, being a little socially oblivious and the sheltered baby-of-the-family.

She suffers from a blood-borne curse known as Shafiq's Syndrome, which causes painful hallucinatory fits, chronic widespread pain, fatigue, and stunted magical development. Although she's very open about being sick and magically disabled, many students on campus don't know the specifics about her illness. Common knowledge generally is: she's not allowed to do a lot of the strenuous physical camping activities everyone else does and she sometimes has fits. Her poor magical skills are also common knowledge, although not everyone knows that it's a consequence of her illness.

Before she attended Gooseberry, she was a Horned Serpent at Ilvermorny, where she was roommates with Tuesday North and Concordia Knight. She was unpopular at Ilvermorny, where she had a reputation of being Kenzie's awkward, dim-witted little sister. She fares better socially at Gooseberry, thanks to the alternative learning setting.

Although magic isn't her strong suit, she does have a passion: music. She's an extremely gifted musician, singer, and composer. She aspires to be a pop star after she graduates, and has a girl group with Carolina Foster-Hayes, Antigone Brown, and Marie Patterson, which she calls The Heretics.

Socially, Tally doesn't always understand conventions that other people do. She is often blunt and puts her foot in her mouth, and is very easy to wind up if people disagree with her. With her friends, she's pushy to the point of being a steamroller. Things happen her way, or they don't happen at all.

This year, Tally wants to get her heart broken, because she's heard that's good for your art. She's going about it all wrong. Her crushes are so numerous and fleeting, I won't try to list them here. She is good friends with fellow love expert, Archie Rose, whose every word she hangs on.