Megara

Player Information
Name: Nikki
Timezone: GMT -5/Eastern
Personal Journal: diary_not_dairy
Players Contact/AIM/MSN/YAHOO: AIM/plurk: diaryxchan
Email Address: diarynotdairy@gmail.com
Former/Other Characters in the RP: Nope!
How did you hear about us?: It was suggested on ATP!

Character Information
Name: Megara
Canon Origin/Series: Disney's Hercules with tiny side of Greek mythology
School Year: Sixth
Gender: Female
Age: 16
Out of school living location: Corinth, Greece
Blood status: Considering that Megara is mythologically the princess of Thebes? She's definitely a pureblood. Elaboration given in history.

Personality: Megara is extremely independent. She wasn’t always this way, but living under the command of a god of the underworld malicious Transfig teacher for over two years is more than enough to spark that kind of reaction. Above all, she desperately wants to do her own thing, to be free to make whatever choices she wants to make without worrying about them being contradicted by Hades. There’s a second kind of independence, too; the kind that chooses to stand alone. Re: the Adonis incident detailed in her history, Meg's become extremely jaded and bitter, quoted in canon to have called humans in general "petty and dishonest." She tends to be a loner, doing everything on her own when she can: she doesn't want help and she doesn't want attachment, tyvm.

Funnily enough, though, Meg's misanthropy is only skin-deep. She has a talent for keeping herself in denial, and perhaps that extends here; in canon, though she expressed dislike for humanity, she sacrificed her life so that Hercules could save it from Hades' reign. Granted, there were mixed motives--spite towards Hades and feelings for Hercules, in the canon example--but there's a deeper reason in that Meg tends to be, despite all odds, a closet romantic. (Again--in denial.) Her subconscious carries a deeply buried hope that there is a shred of goodness in the humanity she tries so hard to hate; the same subconscious that often contradicts much else about her, containing a compassionate, just, and courageous streak that requires abnormal circumstances to surface.

It seems that Meg as a whole is a walking contradiction, or at least trying her very best to deny who she is. She plays the part of the pessimist realist, the cynic, and the skeptic, a part that's as much a piece of her as the quickly-stifled closet romanticism... just much more prominent. She's sarcastic and snarky but not unfriendly, and just because she's desperately independent doesn't mean she's antisocial or socially awkward. Quite the opposite. When the situation calls for it (aka when Hades has an errand) she's capable of being quite charming, coy and flirtatious and witty. Seeing the nastier side of human nature has given her a penchant for understanding it quite well (except for herself, and naturally heavily influenced by negativity) and she can be very manipulative and silver-tongued. Left to her own devices, the worst of those qualities will only manifest themselves in harmless flirting or occasional trolling, since she's not a bad person, per se--just mildly misguided and remarkably denial-filled.

Meg is intelligent, clever and cunning and creative. Once she had a passion for learning that burned as brightly as the Goblet of Fire itself, but these days it's different. After she sold her life to Hades and Adonis dumped her, the eagerness (for everything, really)) dampened considerably. Her ambitions are shot, on a practical level: she thinks she's going to be under his control for the rest of her life, so why should she plan for a future? The one place she never dares to let her idle mind venture is the what ifs, the wonderings about a future that dare to step outside the carefully-laid boundaries of Hades' whims (which, to be fair, still do give her a fair bit of wondering). Her interest in learning, creativity in the like now stem not from ambition or achievement but from entertainment, as a hobby to keep her interested in something. What she wants most now is freedom--and if she tried to achieve that, she'd die before she ever got to taste it.


Canon Background: Disney and mythology.

Background (AU!Canon; HP): Sayonara. Megara Thebodopoulos was born October 2, 1995, leaving her to turn 17 this year. She was the first of seven children of Khloe and Abaddon Thebodopoulos, three of which were triplets, so by the time she received that coveted acceptance letter to Hogwarts, Meg was already a full-time babysitter for her six siblings and ready more than anything to escape. Her family was not only pureblooded (pedigree in-tact) but of nobility; her mother claimed that they were descended from Creon, the mythological king of Thebes in Hercules' time, and whether or not Meg actually believed it, the Thebodopouloses had power, wealth, influence, and magic, and they'd named their firstborn daughter after Creon's eldest, Megara, the wife of Hercules. (She thought it was just swell of them to name her after a trophy wife who was slaughtered by her husband in a fit of insanity caused by a goddess, but you know, you can't win 'em all.)

Meg's family could almost have been said to closely resemble the giant, tangled family tree that composed the Blacks and Malfoys and Lestranges, so much so that some people referred to them as the Greek version of any of those branches. The Thebodopouloses would, of course, rather sacrifice their firstborn children to Muggles for a thousand years than admit any such similarity, mostly because of a vehement rivalry. But the Theobodopouloses, like the Blacks and Malfoys and Lestranges, were a long-standing, pureblood, Slytherin-dominated clan with a dark Muggle-hating streak and, Meg suspected since she knew what it really meant, ties to the Dark Lord. Her relationship with her family as a whole were mixed, love/hate. Unlike much of her family, Meg was always very independent, possibly because she had six siblings who were always very eager to snatch up the attention of their parents, guests, and household servants. As a kid she often had her nose in a book (romance and adventure novels, and more likely than not, both) or her irons in a fire. A.K.A. she was always in trouble for one thing or another, usually for leaving the huge-ass house and occasionally even sneaking into the fascinating world of Muggles. At one point, during a summer vacation when she was thirteen and absolutely sick of her family and a huge fight going on involving a cousin's engagement, she ran away from home for an impressive total of two days before she was found and dragged back. She was alienated because she couldn't give two shits about blood feuds, status, Muggle prejudice (which may have been because she read too many novels about cheesy forbidden love), or Sorting, though the latter would most definitely have had an effect on her on and off relationship with most of her family. As far as the Theobodopouloses saw it, Slytherin was the expected House, Ravenclaw was acceptable, and Hufflepuff and Gryffindor were equally distasteful.

Megara entered Hogwarts with bright eyes despite her hereditary cynicism and immediately developed a crush on a resident "bad boy," an older Slytherin, probably another unfortunate consequence of too many romance novels. Blinded by infatuation as young girls often are, she was enamored all the way through third year, when the boy--called Adonis, coincidentally--finally noticed her and her burgeoning sexuality (developed alongside an early-blooming figure for exactly this purpose) and classic Greek looks. Things continued from there in typical high school romance fashion, aside from (or perhaps in accordance with) that Adonis was more of a jerk than Meg ever noticed. The relationship lasted a full eight months before disaster struck in her fourth year, and his sixth.

Adonis, as he was wont to do, got in another fight at Hogsmeade; though unlike others, which were usually petty and easily solved, this involved bad blood (literally) and serious ill intent. With Meg watching in horror, Adonis broke out the Cruciatus Curse and then tried to transfigure his opponent into a donkey--“the ass you are” were his exact words--but as spells sometimes do for inexperienced casters, it backfired. The opponent escaped and Meg was left with a donkey for a boyfriend.

In a circumstance that was likely both fortunate and unfortunate, Transfiguration professor Hades Kronopoulos was present at Hogsmeade during the time. Meg knew that he of all people would be able to help Adonis... and that he could be persuaded to pull a favor or two. Locked in panicked hysteria, a person doesn’t make the best decisions, and Meg is no exception; in return for Hades’ un-transfiguring her boyfriend and calling in a favor at the Ministry to cover up his Cruciatus Curse usage, she took an Unbreakable Vow that cemented her as, in simple terms, his gopher. Meg was bound to do Hades’ bidding for the rest of his or her life--whichever ended first--lest she lose it.

It wasn’t a fair deal and she knew it from the start, but she figured that as long as she had Adonis, things would be alright. Hell, as long as her beloved was safe and happy, things were okay; even if Hades made her do something terrible or forced her to be apart from him. Unfortunately, less than a month later, Adonis dumped her for a prettier girl.

For the next two years, Meg festered in the bitter aftermath of the breakup that she literally invested her entire life in. Adonis graduated. And she tried to stop caring. Except... it’s kind of difficult.

How would your character fit in to each House?
Gryffindor: Gryffindor is known for being brave, daring, courageous, noble, and chivalrous. Megara exhibits these traits (in a hidden capacity) more than one would think. In canon, she sacrifices her life in order to give Herc his demigod powers back, so that he can save the world from a reign of Hades; this is knowing the fate that awaits her, considering she sold her soul to the god, and is a striking display of nobility and courage. Contrary to what it may seem, Megara is actually very loyal--in both canon and HP!AU, she sacrifices her future for the one she loves (and stays on his ‘side’ despite his actions being not exactly right), and in canon she also sacrifices her life for Hercules, and for the greater good, to save hmanity. It was ill-advised and reckless and full of (com)passion, which can describe many Gryffindors. She has a strong, if often overlooked, moral compass, shown by her canon act of refusing to obey Hades by screwing Hercules over. On the flipside, many of these Gryffindor traits are recessive in her personality and require special circumstances to bring out. She doesn’t have the conventional fire, per se, common to Gryffindors, and her inherent cynicism and disillusionment point towards the opposite end of the spectrum.

Hufflepuff: Students in Hufflepuff are known to be hard-working, loyal, friendly, impartial, and honest. See Gryffindor for the loyalty clause (i.e. sticking by the wrongdoing boyfriend). The honesty front is a little harder to classify. By nature, Meg is honest through bluntness alone, fairly open about her views and her background (though key events, such as the Adonis catastrophe, won’t be mentioned if she can help it). Hades’ intervention means she has to lie about some things, though. She is conversational while not overtly “friendly,” which owes to her natural cynical and often bitter, jaded nature. And again, while it’s often overrided by Hades’ orders, she does have a sense of justice and fairness that’s remarkably prevalent.

Ravenclaw: Ravenclaw values knowledge, intelligence, creativity and wit--all of which Meg has, especially the last. She’s sharp, conversational, and one of the pleasures she takes is in banter. As is apparent by her residual bitterness, she is quite capable of learning from her mistakes, and often learns a little too well. Once bitten, twice shy--well, more like once bitten, thrice shy. Once upon a time Megara was very academically motivated, with a curiosity and eagerness that was almost laughably prevalent and childish, and still retains much of these in a more cynical, clinical and entertainment-oriented manner; however, since she took her Unbreakable Vow, her desire to learn comes more from boredom, inherent curiosity and vicarious living than from actual motivation to grow and do. This stems, of course, from the fact that she doubts she has much a life left to live. If you’d ask Meg what House she thought suited her best, Ravenclaw would be her guess.

Slytherin: Well, for one, this is the House that Meg’s family is mostly composed of. Depending on her mood on the day of the Sorting, she could either have wanted to be a Slytherin as well or she could have wanted to be something completely opposite for the sole sake of pissing them off. Likely, it was the latter; and likely, the fact that her attitude towards the House fluctuates is a pointed indicator towards her suitability for it. Aside from personal preferences, though, Meg doesn’t have a whole lot of ambition, or at least, not anymore. She never was particularly ambitious or achievement-oriented, aside from a curiosity that provoked an eagerness to learn, even at the time of the Sorting, more absorbed in her novels and her exploration than in her plans for the future. These days such is still somewhat true... she really doesn’t think she has a future to be ambitious over. She can be described as very cunning/clever, shrewd, resourceful, possessing “a certain disregard for the rules,” and showing a strong negative streak and also strong misanthropic tendencies, similar to the token Slytherin Muggle-disdain and tendency towards “evil.” These traits, in addition to being developed over her time in Hogwarts, are present in a lot of her family and are fairly hereditary. (She's also a pureblood, if that counts for anything.)

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