Doris McKenna!

[Doris McKenna]

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Doris Gertrude McKenna
Gender: Pink is for girls!
Age: 20 - born 6 March 1951

Education: 
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Ravenclaw, Class of 1970

Residence:
Knockturn Alley

Occupation:
Graduate Student/Shopkeeper

Do you plan to have a connection to a particular existing place (example St Mungo's, the Ministry, Shrieking Shack) or to take over an existing shop in need of new management?
Yes - the Ice Creamery!

Requested Magic Levels:

• Charms: 8
• Transfiguration: 6
• Divination: 7
• Summoning: 7

Do you wish to be approved as a group with any other characters? If so who and for what IC reason?
Yes - Edna Vincent, Katie Gladfellder, Cassandra Gray, Jessica Finch, Irina Drake.

Please list any other characters you already have at the site:
Esme Faracy, etc.

Special Phrase: Tibble's beard of power!

Biography: (300 words minimum.)
There were three things in Doris McKenna's life that mattered: herself, Timothy Vartan, and a good handbag sale.

She was the most obvious, for there was nothing more important in the world than Doris herself. The youngest child of three siblings, Doris had been at once bullied and adored depending on the waning of the moon or the alignment of the planets, or simply the mood of her two older siblings - twins. One would think that twins would automatically make her older siblings more popular, for they were such a rarity, but a recent upswing in twins in the magical world made single children all the more special.

And Doris was nothing if not special.

Her mother had been doting, her father absent, but they had always lived an adequate - if uninspiring - life. Raised just outside of London, Doris developed a love of the city from an early age, and often begged to be taken into the city proper whenever her siblings were going. This was likely why she had been forgotten in Diagon Alley when she was two, and then again when she was three, and then again at seven. She didn't mind, though. It made her resourceful.

And so life went for quite some time, with Doris playing the dutiful younger sister to her older siblings, basking in the glow of their fading glory and enjoying her own star within the family rise. When Edwin and Eleanor went to Hogwarts, Doris's popularity only rose, for she finally had her mother's attention all to herself. When they went on vacations mid-year, it was only Doris who could go, and she left her siblings behind with a smile on her face - much like they had left her in Diagon Alley a record six times.

Timothy Vartan changed everything.

Doris had never imagined that there could be someone more special in the universe than she, the prized child after a disappointing litter of twins, but she had never imagined someone as perfect as Timothy Vartan. His hair was like silk, his eyes like sapphires, and his laugh was infectious and charming all at once. Doris lapsed from jealousy to love in the blink of an eye, and has stayed that way ever since.

It was easier to love beautiful things, and Timothy was the prettiest thing that Doris had ever carried on her arm. Their breakup had been sudden - much like their courtship - and without properly realizing it, Doris' arm was suddenly bare.

In came handbags.

Some might have said it was therapy, and others may have considered it supplementing the loss of Timothy with material goods, but Doris didn't care. She bought handbags by the armful, each more gaudy and ostentatious than the rest. Some had little charms dangling off of the handles - rabbits feet, peace signs - others had studs emblazoned along the seams.

She graduated with twenty-seven handbags. By April of the following year, the number had quadrupled, and Doris McKenna was severely in debt.

Thank heaven for Edna and the abandoned Ice Cream shop down the way. Managing to scrape enough money together for the first month's rent, and convincing Jessica to co-sign a loan (as her credit was miraculously solid), Doris McKenna and Edna Vincent re-opened the Ice Creamery.

If only they could wake up to run it.



ROLEPLAY
Reply as your character to the following:

It was impossible for Dianne to stay out of trouble. It wasn't that she was looking for trouble, it's just that trouble always managed to find her. Today she wished she could find something equally familiar but more comforting.

The five-year old girl hugged her puffskein closer to her and brushed her face in its soft fur for comfort. She had named him herself and he was always her special pet. No she was certain she had never gone down this side street before. Her anxiety increased every second as darkness fell as she walked down the road. A loud noise came to her left and she buried her face in her pet's fur completely. The scared girl bolted the opposite way slamming the both of them into the wall of the nearest building. Tottering back a few steps she found a door a few feet to her right and ran to open it. What light there was inside spilled out into the darkness and she spilled into the room.

Once in, she was caught between the impulse to curl her cloak up more tightly around her and loosen her grip on it. She wasn't alone anymore but she was now among strangers instead, which was nearly as terrifying. Her puffskein had recovered from the shock of the wall and now was purring contentedly as the girl hugged it, causing a mildly calming effect on the girl. Gathering her courage, she marched up to the nearest person, pulled on the nearest clothing hem and blurted out in a loud voice:

"I'm lost and it's dark and I wanted to know where I am but I'm not scared but I am worried that Sambundeakin is scared because he's little and needs something to eat and wants to go home."

She paused to draw a breath in her nearly never-ending sentence, "He misses my and his mommy."

To explain the scared girl held up the custard-colored puffskein. Sambundeakin the puffskein, however simply purred as if nothing on earth was wrong in the world.

Roleplay Response:
Doris didn't know what to do with children, because she was a child herself.

Being a Ravenclaw meant that she was gifted with some things - Doris could read a book and remember the small details, she could balance a checkbook without scratch paper or a calculator, she could French braid her hair while riding a bicycle, but relating to anything younger than she was a nightmare. So were tassels.

Ugh, animals.

"Shouldn't you like," Doris sighed, fishing in her purse. Her searching fingers were met with a host of receipts and little else, save for a lip gloss container. Where was Jessica's money when she needed it?

"Shouldn't you like, pay for this?" She gestured toward the empty plate before her. "Don't forget to tip."

And she was out of there.

SHOPKEEPER QUESTIONS
Answer these questions only if you are applying to be a shopkeeper as well.

Shop name: Type your response here. The Ice Creamery (with Edna Vincent)
Shop Description (200 words minimum): Going first down a set of three stairs, and then entering through the glass-paneled door, the entire shop becomes immediately visible. To the left is enough room for a small corner table and two chairs before the wall appears, but to the right is a large window with three tables large enough to accommodate four chairs each. In the center of the room is a long table that seats twelve (five on each side, one on each end), and on the far wall is a small buffet table that holds cherries, nuts, whipped cream, sprinkles, and chocolate chips to top sundaes off with.

Directly opposite the door is a gray marbled countertop that stretched the length of the back wall. Pink-cushioned stools with cherry wood legs (that match the tables and chairs around the room) are lined up along one side of the countertop, while the other is complete with a variety of supplies including two blenders, spoons, and basins for the ice cream to sit in. Behind the countertop is a large menu on a black chalkboard, handwritten in white chalk and decorated with little flowers along the edges.

Some of the chairs and stools have chips on their legs, and the black and white checkered floor gets muddy after a long day, but the ice cream parlor is seemingly significantly cooler than some of the other shops, whether it is from being slightly lower than street level or from the large freezers in the back is unknown.

What purpose will this shop serve other than selling things and being the home of your character? Why would people want to RP there just for fun?
Ice cream parlors offer a unique setting for a friendly rendezvous or a break from school shopping. The relative obscurity of the parlor allows for a general sense of privacy, and what better way to bond with a friend or a teacher whose class you need to pass than over a sundae?
 

[William Lancaster]

Accepted! Mmm ice cream.