Characters

[Jack]

Meghan Ikin



Character Name: Meghan Ikin
Short Description: A medium sized old woman with weathered skin and steel grey hair.
Long Description: A medium sized old woman with weathered skin and steel grey hair stands here.

Keywords: Medium sized, old woman, weathered skin, steel grey hair, Meghan Ikin

Physical Description:
Despite being neither tall nor short, Meghan Ikin has a presence and poise that a queen would be proud to posses. In spite of her age her back is ramrod straight and her shoulders show no hint of a stoop. Her hands on the other hand are twisted and distorted by age, brown with liver spots and the sun. Calluses from hard work roughen the skin on her palms but on the back her skin has that paper thin look that lets veins stand out among the bones. Her face is as dried up and wrinkled as an old prune, laughter and frown lines are gouged into her skin showing a map of emotions that tells of a long, full, if hard life. Her deep-set eyes are small, but bright and brown as buttons, almost obscured by her thick grey eyebrows. Her nose juts sharply out of her face like a starling’s beak or a craggy mountain rising up off the plains. Her steel grey hair is often twisted in to a tight bun at the nape of her neck or a long plait that she could sit on if she so chose.

History:
Meghan was born into the Little Hangleton branch of the Ikins in the spring of 1902. It was, to use the colloquialism, “raining cats, dogs and grand pianos” outside (with a spot of hail mixed in just to liven things up a bit). She was born in the morning in the upstairs room and by the afternoon her mother was weeding the back garden. Little Meghan sound asleep in the middle drawer of the kitchen dresser.

From an early age Meghan was expected to pull her weight around the small household. At the age of two she was following her mother around with a dustpan and brush, feeding the hens and finding “parts” for her father and uncles to work with in the in shed. By the age of four she could wash windows, make beds, darn socks and any other number of small but necessary jobs that needed done. In the kitchen she was limited by her mother’s command to stay away from the range, however she still played a significant part in preparing the daily meals, chopping up carrots, kneading dough, peeling potatoes and, of course, washing up.

However she didn’t spend every minute of the day working. She and several other village children near her age spent their free time building rafts down by the river, playing hide-and-seek in the graveyard or kicking a football around the village green.

This was before the days of the Secrecy Spell and so Meghan was always made to be aware that she couldn’t speak of some aspects of her life around her Muggle playmates. This bothered her somewhat. After all they were her friends too, why shouldn’t they know? But dutiful daughter as she was she obeyed and kept her mouth shut about what exactly her father and uncles did in the work shed.

She was rewarded for her silence.

As with most magical families the Ikins generally educated their children in the basics of reading and writing at home. In the Ikins case this stemmed more from wanting to keep a working pair of hand close to home than from a desire to preserve Wizarding secrecy. But, little Meggy had been in close contact with the Muggle’s of the village for all of her life and questions would be asked if she didn’t attend…

So, every weekday morning (apart from washing day on Monday and cleaning day on Thursday) Meghan would trot down the road to the local school to get her dose of education. Meghan was not an exceptionally bright child but she managed well enough, learning enough Maths to keep track of the money that went in and out of the house, enough English to note down recipes or write a short letter and she could recite dates and kings as well as any other child.

So her childhood progressed. Until on her eleventh birthday, her Hogwarts letter arrived. However in the Ikin family this event is not a cause for celebration, quite the opposite in fact. For Meghan, the thick parchment envelope placed carefully in front of her by her stony faced mother, was merely a reminder of what she would never poses.

No Ikin had ever gone to Hogwarts.

The letter was opened though. And the family said sensible things and retrieved the special letter writing kit from beneath a bed. A very polite reply was sent thanking the school for their kind invitation but, unfortunately, due to commitments at home, Meghan would not be able to attend Hogwarts.

Meghan kept the letter though and took it out sometimes to wonder about what might have been.

As she grew older though, she looked at it less and less. Ikins were pragmatic folk, and Meghan had never been inclined to cry over spilt milk. Instead she learned useful spells from her mother and applied for the position of maid at the parsonage.

She worked there until she was eighteen at which point she met Wright Ikin, a very distant cousin from the farm up near Lower Crosby. He noticed her pretty eyes and her deftness with pastry, she noticed his strong arms and level head. It was, everyone agreed, a good match. They “walked out” for two months, for forms sake, and then they were married in the Little Hangleton church on a sunny day in April. The bride wore a wedding dress that had been passed down for generations and the groom a suit that was several sizes two small. The service was short and simple, but the celebration afterwards went on long into the night. The bride and groom missed most of this though, after all, they had other things on their minds.

The young couple took up residence in the smallest bedroom of the Ikin house. Wright took up his new job of restoring and re-building the contents of the junkyard with a good will. And Meghan returned to her old job of assistant housekeeper in the Ikin house with a will. After all, married woman didn’t work as maids.

Approximately a year later Meghan’s first child, a son, was born and there was general merriment. Until, a week later, one of Meghan’s uncles slipped down the stairs and broke his neck. The young woman, only just beginning to learn how to cope with being a mother, suddenly had to learn how to cope with grief as well.

She did cope though and she made a life out of coping with what ever was thrown at her, from head lice to dragon pox, from a broken doll to a broken heart, from the death of a chicken to the death of a husband.

What ever happened she carried on and never cried when anyone was watching.

Personality Description:

Meghan Ikin is a formidable old woman, hard as nails and twice as sharp. In her time she has taken some pretty hard knocks on the anvil of life, but she has always pulled herself back up again. Possibly out of sheer bloody-mindedness.

She has certainly picked up many of her characteristics from her Ikin ancestors. She makes a point of never taking charity. Although to her charity seems to mean any sort of help at all, so determined is she that she can cope on her own. Sometimes this even extends to her own family. Despite her age she still tries to do all of her jobs alone when some of the family feel that she ought to be sitting somewhere and doing small jobs, like peeling potatoes. But she feels that letting go of her jobs would mean admitting to herself that she is old and therefore weak.

Despite her poor circumstances she is prouder than any rich snob in a big house. She has a way of looking at people she dislikes that conveys the fact that she thinks that she is better than them loud and clear. Although she is always polite she posses the ability to say “Good morning” and make it seems like a declaration of war. In her mind there is a very clear dividing line between Them and Us, and woe betide and anyone who tries to cross that line.

The Ikins are traditionally a rather devout family and Meghan is no exception. Although she doesn’t seem to have read the bit that goes: “The meek will inherit the earth” and focuses more on things like “It is easier to fit a camel through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” She begins each meal with grace, although she objects to thanking God for putting the food on the table, as he so obviously didn’t.

Despite her faults she does have a good heart and only wants the best for her family. Although she often does things “For their own good” without finding out what it is that people actually want.

[Jack]

Victor Nicolas Ikin



First name: Victor Nicolas Ikin
Gender: Male
Date of birth: December 31st (19 years of age)

Short Description: An unobtrusive, dark haired man.

Physical Description: His deep blue eyes twinkle warmly, welcoming friend and stranger alike; set deep in their sockets, they seldom blink as he takes in his environment. His posture is impeccable, setting his six foot frame higher than would typically be expected. His face is long, defined by a strong jaw and centered by pale lips. His skin is tanned and weathered but his hands and fingers are that of a craftsman, more at home fiddling with bits of metal, screws, and files than rougher material. Dark hair falls into his eyes while the rest is tucked behind his pointy ears.

Personality Description: Victor has never been one for overly ambitious plans or harebrained schemes, but he is very sure of himself and is full of confidence. He never doubts his abilities, though he may be discouraged as anyone else when puzzled particularly. Victor’s upbringing has afforded him very little in the way of material pleasures, but it has made him a truly upstanding individual when it comes to his character. He is courteous, kind, forgiving, and always proper. Victor is much closed to others as a naturally introverted person, but he enjoys sharing his thoughts with those close to him. He needs a closeness of relationship to truly come out of his shell. Without that relationship he can seem cold to some. Victor has never really been jealous of other families in Little Hangleton, he never really saw the point, as he has always been perfectly content to live the life provided to him; the one he was led to live from a very young age.

Character History: Victor’s particular branch of the Ikin family has always been somewhat separated from the rest. His father, Henry, disagreed with many family traditions and left with almost nothing to the greater city of Greater Hangleton, where he found himself a job as a common laborer and worked there for several years until he had saved the money to buy a small house and fetch him a wife. After a short time he met a woman named Claire Churchill and soon after that they were married.

[Jack]

Bridget Adelaide Ikin



First Name: Bridget Adelaide Ikin
Gender: Female
Date of birth: October 17th (18 years old)

Short Description: A short, auburn-haired girl with striking, sage-green dreamer’s eyes

Physical Description: Although standing a mere few inches over five feet, the aura of acute pride surrounding this young woman—accentuated by her sharp, narrow chin persistently held high—seems to overcome her lack of height. The features of this girl’s heart-shaped face are rather plain, save for her soft, sage green dreamer’s eyes, which are framed with long auburn lashes, the top ones smothering the shorter lower lashes as the girl blinks. Her lightly sun-bronzed skin emphasizes both these soft yet striking eyes, as well as her dark auburn hair, the long, wavy strands of which are fastened tightly back into a single, thick plait, reaching to her mid-back. The young woman’s body has noticeably been blessed with soft, feminine curves, and her petite hands are seemingly equally as feminine, with their slender fingers and long, clean nails. Her palms, however, seem slightly mismatched from the rest of her body, as they are tough and leather-like.

Personality Description: Bridget Ikin is a true Ikin in nearly every sense of the name, embodying many of the traits which have become characteristic of Ikins throughout the many generations.

Although she stands yet on the brink of adulthood, merely dipping her toes into the unknown waters of womanhood, Bridget’s personality is already established and unmistakeable, with perhaps her most noticeable quality being her proud-as-a-peacock persona. To Bridget, the Ikins are the best family around, the paramount family, and no matter what anyone has to say about the Ikins--the poor farmers, or the peasants, as some refer to them as--Bridget possesses great pride in being an Ikin, no matter their class.

This overt pride, however, at times tends to lend itself to another, less desirable trait. While Bridget is proud to be an Ikin, proud to be a “farmer’s daughter”, she does, on occasion, tend to become overly judgemental of others—especially the other prominent, higher class families of Little Hangleton—due to a deep-seeded (albeit fairly false) belief that others believe the Ikins to be inferior. While this is mostly untrue—with some exceptions, of course—Bridget, as a result, tends to immediately judge people as thinking themselves superior, and act proudly defensive around others.

However, this less-than-perfectly-friendly, judgemental attitude is rarely ever apparent when Bridget is actually conversing with another villager, or even just passing them in the village. Like most Ikins, Bridget was brought up in a household of respect and strict obedience, where manners and the way one presented themselves to others, be it family, friend, or stranger, was heavily instilled upon everyone. As a result, Bridget appears outwardly to be a model child—obedient, polite, friendly—while keeping her true emotions and thoughts kept tightly within. Likewise, she is definately not one to wear her heart on her sleeve.

Many of Bridget’s personality traits are skewed or hidden behind her façade-like presentation of herself. Only people closest to herself, for example, know of her sharp stubbornness, her fierce impatience, or her ripe ambition. It is this ambition, however, that has proven to Bridget to be the toughest to subdue. Although common knowledge that Ikins don’t attend Hogwarts, Bridget has always secretly yearned to go to the magical school, to expand her magical knowledge, and her world. Sure, she is proud of her family and what they do, and she is proud to be an Ikin, but that hasn’t doused Bridget’s ambition to make something of herself. She has even gone so far as to attempt to shed her common first name, insisting that people call her by her less-typical middle name.

Bridget knows that her ambitions are mere fantasies, however, not only due to family customs, but due to her own life as well. As she had been forced at a young age to look after her younger siblings and basically fill the void of “mother”, Bridget quickly blossomed from an innocent child to a responsible young adult, quite successfully. As a result, Bridget knows the true meaning of being responsible and knowing what is right and important.

As a whole, Bridget Ikin is a quite mature young adult. Having been forced to grow up quite rapidly, she has become quite a strong-willed woman (just try and walk all over her) with a good sense of right and wrong, a gentle nature, and her fair share of faults that make her the formidable young woman that she is.

Character History: Tall and muscular, with striking blue eyes, Isaac Ikin had been a handsome 17-year-old boy wizard in Little Hangleton, helping out at Ikin's Odds 'N' Ends when he was not working on his parent's small farm, when he first laid eyes on young Helen Fairbanks, the pretty 16-year-old Muggle daughter of a sheep farmer from the next village over. It was love at first sight when the two teenager's paths crossed down at the creek one muggy summer day, and a short, flurried courtship ensued, resulting in the marriage of the wizard and the Muggle within the year.

Barely a year had passed when, in the wee hours of a chilly October morning, Bridget Adelaide Ikin entered the world, the eldest child of Isaac and Helen. Two more children--Catherine and Eleanor--followed joyously over the next few years, and the small family lived happily, albeit simply, until, when Bridget was merely 10, Helen became with child again. The excitement over a new addition to the family was shortlived, however, when Helen Ikin died birthing baby Samuel.

Shattered over the loss of his wife and unaware as to how to raise and provide for four young children alone, Isaac Ikin turned to his eldest child, Bridget, in desperation. Although she was yet a child, mourning the death of her mother, Bridget dutifully accepted this new responsibility, becoming the mother figure to her younger siblings as well as taking over the cooking, cleaning, and other chores, both around the house and on the small family farm which her father maintains on the side of the Ikin family business.

As a result of the responsibilities that Bridget was forced to shoulder so early on in her life, she didn't have a normal childhood. Whereas she should have been having fun with other children, helping out with chores only minimally around the home, she was constantly unable to do anything with children her own age. Therefore, although she secretly yearned for it, she had few, if any, friends growing up.

When she turned 11, Bridget received her Hogwarts letter. She remembers the day vividly. Standing over the stove, an apron tied over her sensible, peasant-like dress (which her stern, prudent grandmother insisted she dress in, despite the changing styles of the time), Bridget had been cooking breakfast for her family when an owl had dropped the letter into the boiling pot of porridge. Despite the thick goop which had then coated the envelope, Bridget was still able to make out the seal of the magical school. Keeping a stoic face, hiding the true disappointment that she felt at what she was about to do next, Bridget plucked the letter from the porridge and, without even opening it, tossed it into the fire.

After that, Bridget tried to forget about Hogwarts, showing no emotion as the other village children left each September, year after year, returning every June, year after year, while she remained, raising her brother and sisters, taking care of her father, and learning what the Ikins considered useful magic from her grandmother (who had also educated her with basic reading, writing, and arithmatic over the years). Deep down, however, Bridget always longed to go to Hogwarts too, to become something great, to show the world how great an Ikin was. However, she kept up outward appearances as she always did, acting as though everything was fine and dandy, and went on about her responsibilities.

A few months ago, not long after Bridget's 18th birthday, her father, while passing through a nearby village, met Maria, a friendly, smiling witch whom he found made him laugh like no one had since his beautiful Helen had passed away. Isaac, who had become a quiet man who oftentimes kept to himself, surprised everyone, including his daughter and other children, when he returned home a month later--with a new wife in tow. Maria, a woman from an equally poor family, used to hard work, stepped right into the role of farmwife, relieving Bridget of many of her duties. Bridget, on the brink of womanhood and due to start a life of her own, welcomed both this relief and Maria herself--a very nice woman who quickly became the closest that she had ever had to a friend--despite the fact that she found it a little difficult to just let go of the responsibilites that she had grown so used to.

Now, Bridget stands alone, a young woman, trying to find her place in the world--or, at least, in Little Hangleton.