E L S E W H E R E C H I L D
CHARACTER INFORMATIONCharacter Name: Thijs Märchen
Gender: Male
Age: 9 years
Birthdate: June 22, 1939
Bloodline: Halfblood
Parents/Guardians (Are they currently played characters?): Maria Van Slooten ; Lars Märchen
Residence: The Hogsmeade Home for Children
Do you plan to have a connection to a particular existing place (for example: the daycare)?The Hogsmeade Children's home
Do you wish to be approved as a group with any other characters? If so who and for what IC reason? The Märchens - They're family!
Please list any other characters you already have at the site:Helen Kane, Theo Brooks
Biography: (100 words minimum.)B A C K W A R D
"You mustn't go, Lars," said the mother, clutching white-knuckled onto the banister, "Tell them you have a son to care for; or make up an illness; anything,"
"
Dat kan niet, Maria," sighed the father, "There's a war coming- I am not the first to try to jump ship."
The mother could not speak for fear of breaking the silence.
"The army
needs men before the Germans mobilise," said the father, "There are whispers on the wind of an invasion, did you hear that?"
"I cannot lose you," said the mother, even though she knew that she would.
"I'll come back,
lieveling," said the father, even though he knew that he would not.
The mother could only nod and walk into the other room to look at their son, lying in his crib with shut eyes and clenched little fists, and a tuft of shock-white hair standing upright on the top of his little head. The father placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled at the son.
"
Hey thumbling, hey thumbling, won't you be alright?" sang the father, and the mother's answering sob was a laugh in disguise. She clutched onto his hand.
"Thijs is a Märchen, Maria," said the father, and there was pride in his voice, "We are the strongest in the world."
The mother pressed her knuckles to her mouth and bit down; bitter copper flooded her mouth. Nausea rolled in her gut and her sleeping young son was bulletproof to it all. She promised herself that he would never suffer. He would never know hunger, or thirst, or illness. She would love him for ever and ever.
They were a family of liars.
S T A N D S T I L L
"Hello?" The woman that opened the door was gaunt, squinting into the dark and cold. She was wafer-thin.
Thijs clutched tight onto his mother's hand and pushed past her, and worked words through gapped teeth, just like his mother had taught him.
"Ith there a plathe for uth to thtay?" He asked. His little voice was barely loud enough for the woman to hear. She turned a set of sympathetic eyes on him and he sniffled, which wasn't hard. "I'm tho hungry and tho cold," he said, and rubbed at his eyes, "My mama and I are going to our family in Friethland. The'th really thick."
The woman squatted down and Thijs bravely met her eyes, like his mother had told him. "How old are you,
kleintje?"
"Four," Thijs said, and trembled when the newspaper insulation in his coat did nothing to stop the bitter ice from reaching his bones.
The woman glanced up at his mother, who stared back with soulless eyes. "Come in," the woman said, before opening the door wider and allowing Thijs and his mother to slip through.
The room was small and stuffy, but warm, and the woman helped Thijs out of his long coat whilst his mother struggled on the doorstep with hers. The buttons were frozen stiff.
"Where are you from?" The woman asked. His mother didn't respond, so Thijs touched the woman's arm and told her. "Delft," he said, small voice garbled by frost. His teeth chattered around the word and the woman's face creased.
"Let me get you something to eat. We don't have much else but soup, I'm afraid," She said. Thijs looked at her and managed a grimace. It was meant to be a smile, but the frost pulled at his cheeks. "Thank you," he said. He meant it.
The woman stood and bustled away and Thijs turned to his mother. His little belly rumbled with hunger; his eyes watered from the warmth in the room. "Wath that alright, mama?" He asked.
For the first time, Maria Märchen seemed to wake. She turned to her son and hugged him to her body, and winced when her son's bones poked into her skin. Thijs Märchen was far too little; far too thin to be as brave as he was. His thin body carried the weight of their fractured family- he was stronger than she had ever been.
She had promised he would not suffer.
"That was more than alright, little thumbling," she told her son, and watched as his eyes lit up. "You're such a good little boy. So loyal."
Thijs burrowed into her and smiled, and greedily ate the watery soup that the friendly woman gave him. The woman tucked him into a large armchair, blanket thrown over his stick-thin legs in front of the fireplace.
He asked whether they would be alright.
His mother told him they would be. It was March. Winter would end soon.
They were a family of dreamers.
F O R W A R D S
"Where's the train going, mama?" Thijs asked her, clutching onto her hand and looking around with wide eyes. For all his bravery, the sight of the heaving goliath in front of him belching smoke and steam and hissing like an animal possessed, made Thijs feel more little than he already was.
People pushed around him and his mother, calling this way and that; jostling rudely and shouting in Dutch and English, German and French. Thijs' head swam.
"To London, little cub," His mother said, making Thijs' head flip itself the right way up, and he looked at her.
"Where is that?" He asked. It didn't sound like a place in Holland.
"England, Thijs," said his mother. Thijs didn’t know what she was talking about.
England was not
Holland, though, and his stomach filled with a horrible feeling.
"Why are we going there?" He wondered, eyes caught on a man wearing a blue cloak and a pointy hat. He stuck out like a sore thumb with all that blue.
"Because it's safer there, little cub," said his mother, and tugged him out of the way of the man with the pointy hat. Thijs watched him walk through the crowd. He almost believed he saw the man disappear into thin air.
"Why?" he asked, and his mother chuckled down at him. She never got tired of his questions. Thijs liked that. There was no one he loved like his mother. He never wanted to leave her.
"It's better for people like us, Thijs," she said.
Thijs' little eyebrows bunched together. "Like us?" he echoed.
His mother nodded. "We're special, you and I," she knelt down and pushed a lock of hair away from his face. His hair was still as white as the day he had been born. Sometimes Thijs wondered whether the winter had made him as little and as pale as he was. "We've got magic."
"Magic?" he asked, and smiled. It almost sounded like something out of a fairy-tale.
"Exactly," His mother said, and her eyes were glassy, "Your father and I are magic, so you'll be too. Do you want me to show you?"
Thijs nodded.
Then, his mother took out a long, thin stick, and pointed it between his eyebrows. Thijs didn't even notice she was crying until he heard her sniffle. "Mama?" He asked, reaching out. His mother cried harder and Thijs didn't understand.
"I love you, mama, don't be sad," Thijs said, but his mother only sobbed and pushed his reaching little hand away.
He felt the tip of the stick touch his left eyebrow. The horrible feeling in his stomach took root and he wanted it to go away. He wanted to hold Mama's hand again. He wanted to go home now.
His mother flickered for a second, almost looked like she would smile. She tilted her head to the side. "
Hey thumbling, hey thumbling, won't you be alright?" She sang to him.
He looked in his mother's eyes and there was a fleeting glimpse of terrifying blankness. "Mama?" he tried again, and felt his mother tuck his hair behind an ear. "
Ik hou van je, Thijs Märchen. We are the strongest in the world." She whispered.
The stick lifted away from his eyebrow. His mother sniffed and Thijs wanted to hug her-
"Obliviate."
They were a family of liars and dreamers.
All must wake.
Roleplay:Godric Park.
Overhead, the sky was a crisp blue, for once clear of the ever-pervasive spongy clouds and rain. The sun was a lemony-yellow presence, high in the Eastern sky, and in front of it zipped three broomsticks in a straight line, or something very like one. One... two..... three... the boys passed, their shouts of excitement echoing as they chased the snitch, a tiny shimmer reflecting the sunlight.
Far below was another, much smaller broomstick.
It trugged along the ground, hugging close to it like a sluggish choo choo train and occasionally shuttering in protest. This was because said stick was currently being occupied by a very small girl who was tugging upward on the front of it with all her might, trying to coax it into doing what it had been expressly designed NOT to do.
"John, I said
wait up!" The tiny girl squealed, giving the broomstick another tug.
Begrudgingly, it drifted upward a foot, and then sank, depositing the troublesome girl safely on the ground. Janey Hurst was not pleased. In a huff, she hopped off the toy safety broom, grabbing it firmly and thrusting it handle first into the turf.
Her brother was such a beast. He NEVER let her play! She folded her arms, seething blue eyes fixing on another figure nearby. "You!" She barked, much more sharply than she meant to.
"...Do you want to play?"
Roleplay Response:It was a lovely day, one that reminded Thijs starkly of Holland in the summer. It made him feel homesick for reasons he couldn't understand- he'd only been in Holland once, as far as he could remember, and it was during a long winter instead of a summer.
The feeling tugged at the back of his brain, making his little head hurt for trying. He felt like he was grasping onto butter, and every time he tightened his little fists; it slipped away.
Perhaps it didn't matter. Perhaps it was just an avid imagination. Perhaps it was just a dream.
"You! …Do you want to play?"
Thijs snapped to attention at the sound of a voice, one very much little like his. He looked around and spotted the girl, arms crossed like a statement. She looked rather hostile, and Thijs wanted to shrink away under her gaze.
He didn't recognise her; not from the orphanage; not from the streets around it. She was luckier than he was.
The girl's expression sobered and Thijs warmed to it. He gave the girl a tentative smile. "Okay," he said, taking a few steps forward, "My name's Thijs. What's yours?"
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