Written 2003, © Erica 2005

Profile for Flynn School of the Elements (RPG died and was later purged by Ezboard... sad... I liked it.)

-Personal-

Name: Erica
Ezboard SNs: Azurial, Berlioz Callaghan
Email address: [email protected]

-Character-

Name: Daphne Aideen Merchant
Nicknames: Daph, Daphy, Merchant, Miss Pyro
Age/Birthday: 20/ 3 April 1983
Gender: Female
Blood: Muggle/Midwesterner
Wand: N/A
House: Fire
Year: 4th

Physical Appearance: 5' 8" and 125 lbs, Daph is tall and willowy with long arms and legs and large hands. Built slender but slightly muscular, Daph has what her friends teasing call a femm six pack. Daph has alburn brown hair that reaches just below her shoulders. While she loves the color, she hates the fact that it is curly as a corkscrew, so every morning she straightens it; Daph's hair then reaches the middle of her back. Normally, she'll keep it in a ponytail or braid, though she'll occasionally just wear it down. On the other hand, Daph loves her eyes. Golden-brown in hue, Daph's eyes are large with long lashes, and tend to have a mishchievous glint to them. Tanned a bit from being outside a lot, Daph's skin is amazingly clear, a trait she got from her mother, though it does tend to burn if she's not careful. Daph dresses like the Midwesterner she is: plaid shirts (or at least collared shirts if plaid seems too casual), jeans, boots, belts with large buckles, a cowboy hat if she can manage it, several rings, bracelets and a couple of necklaces. Daph wears as little makeup as possible, mainly nothing past a little mascara, lip gloss and a little eyeshadow. But when necesarry, Daph can rise to the occasion and dress to kill. With her built, high heels go well with her legs and sheath dresses tend to draw eyes. Daph actually usually tries to wear full skirts when she has to be formal, as she hates drawing those eyes, plus it gives her a wider range of motion, in case she had to kick butt in a gown. Even then, Daph will wear as little make-up as possible, though this time maybe throwing in some rouge and actual lipstick in a semi-neutal tone. There is one thing Daph always wears, her grandmother's ring, on the middle finger of her right hand. It's a gold band with a small diamond, her grandmother's engagement ring.

((I actually know someone with golden eyes, so...))

Personality: Spunky, stubborn and independent, Daph has a vibrant spirit. Brought up to rely heavily on her own abilities and knowledge, Daph doesn't do very well with authority figures. Sharp with her wit and quick with her tongue, it doesn't take much to set Daph off. And when she's set off, watch out; Daph is always ready for a fight (though she sometimes picks ones she can't win). But while she's quick to anger, she's also quick to calm down, though one generally has to know a few tricks to simmer her temper fast. Daph isn't all temper though, she's also very ambitious and sets high goals for herself, which she often has to fight to meet. But she'll meet her goals, one way or another (all inside legal and moral bounds of course). A little bossy, Daph sometimes will rub people the wrong way, and will often jump to conclusions. But Daph is also a good talker and can generally talk people around to see her view point. Outgoing and friendly, Daph does love the limelight, something her friends find both annoying and endearing. Daph is also a bit impatient. She doesn't like waiting, and when she thinks she's been waiting too long, Daph will take things into her own hands. Daph will often jump into things without looking, usually dragging a few people along with her. She doesn't mean to get other in trouble, but it happens. Daph doesn't mind being what most people call "crazy." After all her favorite saying, told to her by her best friend, is, "Why fit in when you were born to stand out?" And stand out she does, whether through her interesting sense of humor (and the creative pranks that are the result of it), her reknown temper, or the various people she befriends. Those that have the patience to put up with Daph, however, find a valuable friend, one that's always there the liven things up but also to be serious when really needed.

Habits: Daph has a habit of tossing her head when her hair is in her face instead of just brushing it aside, making her look a little contemptuous, but she's not. Daph just found she usually had both her hands occupied when her hair got in her way, so she had to develope a method to get the hair out of her way without using her hands. Daph likes to always wear several items of jewelry, at least one necklace, a couple bracelets and several rings, and she'll often fiddle with her jewelry. She'll twist her rings, spin her bracelets and pull at her necklaces. But Daph has a habit most people find a little surprising at first. Daph likes to pick up stay animals and bring them home. Must come from living in the Midwest and spending summers on a farm.

Hobbies: Most of Daph's hobbies are linked to the Midwest. She's an accomplished horsebackrider, having learned to ride a horse soon after learning to walk. If she wants peace and quiet, she'll often go out riding. Daph was very involved in dressage shows as she grew up and still loves competing. Daph also loves riding her motorcycle, which she brought with her to Flynn, simply because she couldn't bear to have to go places without it. Daph knows the back roads around her family's farm like the back of her hand, and knows all the places she can slip into their fields from the road. As a teenager, Daph was one of the local cycle racing champs at the semi-illegal races that took place on the back roads. She didn't use the fields as short cuts, but if the cops ever came to bust up the races, she knew all the places to slip out of sight. Daph also brought her favorite horse, Athena Epona, to Flynn. A brown belt in Kampo Karate, another of Daph's hobbies is self-defense. Daph doesn't like having other people protecting her and is too independent to be a damsel in distress.

Fears: Most of Daph's fears stem from her childhood in the Midwest. Daph is absolutely terrified of tornados, as she was almost picked up by one as a child. A tornado ripped through her family's farm one summer and Daph was almost sucked out of the celler when the door broke loose. Dustin grabbed her before she was sucked out and ancored them both to a metal bracket in the cellar wall. Another of Daph's fears is water, as she was rather accident prone as a child and almost drowned in the pond on more than one occasion. She tried to learn how to swim, but it just wasn't her thing. Daph is also a little weary around men, mainly because of what was happening when her powers manifested.

Hopes/Dreams: Daph hopes of becoming a large animal veteranarian someday and tried to keep her grades high enough so she'll be accepted to whatever college she applies to. Daph also wants to own a small farm somewhere in Missouri and raise horses. She also dreams of starting a horse training school, but knows that if she's a vet she won't have time for that. One of Daph's dreams that she's had since she was a child is to win a national dressage show, the FEI Grand Prix in the dressage category, and frankly, that's not far out of her reach.

Family: Dustin Elessar Merchant (father); Ariel Kathrine Cooper (mother); Darrick Merchant & Kassidy Logan-Merchant (grandparents on father's side); Donovan Merchant (uncle on father's side); Darelle Merchant-McGinnis (aunt on father's side; Lennon Cooper & Meredith Vaughn-Cooper (grandparents on mother's side); Bryce & Michael Cooper (uncles on mother's side) [yes, they're all alive still]

Brief History: ((brief? *cough cough cough*))
Dustin was born to Darrick Merchant and Kassidy Logan in the small town of Crystal City, Missouri, just south of St. Louis. Darrick was raised on a farm in the surrounding area and Kassidy's family ran the general story in town. The two had met at high school and had dated a little here and there but had more of a close friend relationship than a romantic one. Darrick and Kassidy didn't really hit it off until Darrick rather gallantly defended Kassidy from some drunk men that were trying to rob her family's store a few years later. The two started going out a little more seriously than before and about two years later got married. They had three children Donovan, Darelle, and Dustin. As the youngest, Dustin never thought he was anything special until he got an odd letter when he was eleven stating that he was a wizard. He was a muggle-born wizard. Suddenly all of the very strange things that had happened during his childhood made sense. The neighbor's vicious dog turning to stone, the corn popping itself one cool summer day, his jumping up into the loft of the barn when his brothers chased him, among other things. So Dustin went off to wizarding school in California. And there he met Ariel.
Ariel was born to Lennon Cooper and Meredith Vaughn in Arlington, Texas just west of Dallas. Lennon was the only son of a cattle rancher and Meredith was the daughter of the owner of a big oil company. The two met when Lennon went to visit his cousin, Christine, in Dallas. Meredith was his cousin's best friend. The two didn't really hit it off, due to their backgrounds (oilers taking up good grazing land, cattlers taking up potential drilling sites, etc) but they managed to work around their differences. But when Lennon went to ask Meredith's father if he could marry her, he hit a rock. Her father said Lennon could marry Lennon if he sold his ranch, since it was sitting on a nice deposit of oil that Meredith's father wanted. Lennon refused, and he and Meredith eloped. Her father didn't speak to her for a few years, but eventually warmed up to his nervy son-in-law. Lennon and Meredith had three children, Bryce, Michael, and Ariel. Ariel was her father's pride and joy. Lennon adored his only daughter as she adored him, despite the sometimes odd things that would happened around her. Like the cat dancing on its hind legs, her toy dolls walking across the floor, Ariel herself dancing on the top of the stables (that one nearly gave him a heart attack), among other things. But then an explanation came the year she turned eleven; a letter that informed Ariel that she was a witch. She was a muggle-born witch. So Ariel went off to wizarding school in California. And there she met Dustin.
Dustin and Ariel were placed in the same house. The house for the outgoing daredevil types (sort of like Gryffindor). They were not in the same year. In fact, Dustin was two years ahead of Ariel. But they forged a friendship that later turned to love. After graduating, Dustin went to work as an herbologist and Ariel went to a hybrid-school (a college that admitted both wizarding and muggle) to become a medi-witch. During that time, Dustin and Ariel started dating, and when Ariel got her certificate as a medi-witch, they got married. The couple bought a small farm in Missouri, just outside of Columbia. However, this marriage wasn't all roses. There was one problem, a medical problem. Shortly after Ariel's first pregnancy, about two years after their marriage and the one Daphne was the product of, the doctors discovered a problem with Ariel's uterus, a problem that even magic couldn't fix, a benign tumor on the upper portion of the uterus. Luckily the tumor hadn't affected the baby, and Daph was fine. But the tumor had the potential to turn malignant and start spreading, so to prevent it from metastasizing to her other organs Ariel had to have a hysterectomy. Ariel couldn't have anymore children.
For a while, Ariel was completely devastated. For several months she simply didn't function except to care for the baby. Dustin finally managed to help Ariel realize that not being able to have children wasn't the end of the world and that he loved her no matter what. So Dustin and Ariel poured all their love into Daphne. But something was a little off with their wonderful little girl. She wasn't showing any signs of magic. None what-so-ever. Absolutely nothing magical happened during Daph's childhood. Dustin and Ariel had no idea what to do to check to really see if she didn't have magic, other than to toss her out the barn loft, and they weren't about to do that. So they waited. And when the year she turned eleven came and went, it was confirmed. Daphne was a Squib. As Daphne got a little older, she realized that magic wasn't everything, despite what some of her wizarding playmates might say. But she was still constantly teased for being magicless, so Daph started taking self-defense lessons. After beating one of the other kids into a state just below a bloody pulp, they decided that maybe Daph didn't really need magic to hold her own.
Daph had close relationships with both her parents, maybe more so with her mother than with her father. But for some reason, she tended to spill her secrets and feelings more to her horse, Athena, than to her parents. Daph was fascinated with horses from an early age, from the moment her father took her riding for the first time. When Daph was eleven, as a gift to help her not get upset over not getting a letter, Dustin gave one of the new foals to Daph to raise and train. This was Athena. Daph would spend endless hour with the young foal, teaching it to trust her, then later teaching Athena dressage moves. Daph and Athena Epona won several local dressage shows and even a few state ones. Daph has helped raise and train several horses after Athena, but Athena Epona has remained her favorite.
By the time she was thirteen, Daph had fully adjusted to the fact that she didn't have magic. But then, roughly when she was 16 years and 5 months old, something odd happened. It was early August and Daph had been in Columbia on a slight shopping spree when she'd run into some boys from school, boys she'd not only beat at dressage shows that year but also at the illegal motorcycle races that were held out side of town on the back roads. They cornered her outside the mall in the back parking lot where she's left her motorcycle and started berating her and her parents. Finally when Daph could take no more of it, she lashed out. Kicking one boy away from her and into the wall, she tried to fight her way out of the group. But there were too many of them. Closing in on her, two of the boys grabbed her arms and pulled them behind her, while the remaining ones discussed what to do with her. The final consensus was that they'd have to put her in her place. Thinking they meant they were going to beat her up, Daph didn't understand the hidden meaning to their words until the semi-leader of the group started touching her, in all the wrong places. The truth hit Daph like a hammer, they intended to rape her.
As her fear and anger mounted she started fighting harder to get away. One of the boys cracked her head so head she saw stars and didn't see what happened next. The leader of the group and the two holding her arms suddenly screamed in pain and jumped back from her. Staggering slightly, Daph shook her head to clear her vision and saw surprised at what she saw. The three boys were rolling on the group, trying to extinguish the fire that was leaping around their bodies. The other boys were trying to help put out the flames but when they touched the three the fire leapt onto them as well. Shocked and afraid of what she was seeing, Daph jumped on her motorcycle and ran for home. When she got there, for the first time in her life she ran straight to her mother instead of Athena. Ariel was horrified at what her daughter told her and wanted to call the police. The Daph reminded her about the fire. She didn't know how it had started. Not knowing what to do, but knowing Daph had to get away, Ariel wrote to the headmaster of the magic school she and Dustin had attended in her youth. She knew they couldn't send Daph there because she didn't really seem to have full magic, but this fire starting thing had to be some brand of magic, right? The headmaster replied that it sounded like Daphne was a fire elementalist and that he knew of an excellent school in Arizona, Flynn School of the Elements. Ariel wrote the headmistress of Flynn and enrolled Daph for the next school year. That was over three years ago.

Writing Sample:
Rae slipped into the student lounge after an unofficial softball game. She had been playing first base, quite an exhausting position to play, and was now grateful for a chance to relax. There was still... she looked down at her watch, a few loose strands of dark blonde hair falling down in front of her face. Half an hour left until dinner started, and dinner lasted well over an hour. She looked around the room, startled to find that there were very few people in the lounge, and those few seemed to be working together on something.
Rae ignored them, instead walking over to one wall and turning on the radio. She concentrated on it for a minute, messing with the tuning until she arrived at an alternative rock station. Not quite her usual style of hard rock or classical music, but she liked it anyhow. She adjusted the volume so that it was only a sound in the background and dropped down onto one of the couches. She leaned back, preparing to relax for a while before heading off to shower before dinner.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Daph wandered into the student lounge after leaving the stands at the end of the softball game. Noticing that Rae was already there, she flopped down onto one of the other couches and gave the younger fire student a grin. She'd been watching Rae during the game and cheering for their team. Personally, she didn't really like sports as she was more partial to dressage and motorcycle racing, but she was always there to support her friends.
"That was a great game, Rae. I knew you guys were going to win."
Tapping her toe on the arm of the couch her feet were resting on to the beat of the song that was coming from the radio, Daph's mind drifted back to the tickets her best friend Ian had just send her. He'd seen the group when they were in Columbia a few months ago and thought she'd like to see them when they came to Arizona. Boy was he right; she was really excited about the concert. But she had four tickets, and she was only using one. She had to find a few other people to go with her. Listening to the station the radio was on, Daph figured she'd found someone to go with her.
"Hey, Rae, I heard that Good Charlott was going to be in town next weekend. I've procured a few tickets. D'you want to go?"