FULL NAME: Mia Dolores Samaniego
NICKNAMES: Her name is three letters long, and therefore any nickname serves no purpose besides being cutesy, which she is not.
AGE/DOB: January 14 / 15
YEAR: Sophomore
BLOOD STATUS: Halfblood
GENDER/PRONOUNS: She/her/hers is fine. She's really in a "GIRL POWER IS GREAT!" upswing at the moment, which has allowed her to put off introspecting on her gender for a little while longer. Girls are awesome! Mia loves being a girl!
SEXUALITY: Bisexual
HOMETOWN: Philadelphia, PA.
APPEARANCE:Mia dresses like a third grader who's been allowed to pick her own clothes for the first time in her life. She knows it doesn't look particularly good, but she doesn't care. She likes to be comfortable, and that lends a tomboyish sensibility to some of her outfits. But she also has a few creature comforts - bright colors, shiny fabrics, questionable makeup decisions. It's not entirely clear if she's expressing herself or acting out against someone or something unknown.
HEIGHT: 5'6".
BUILD: Lean and muscular.
PB: Seychelle Gabriel
INSPO: Pinboard Mia is full of potential - everybody agrees on this. What makes her fall short of reaching that potential is up for debate. Bright and clever, classes that don't interest her are a chore to sit through. What few film and writing projects she completes are charming and stylish, but lack technical acuity and never make it through a round of revisions. And though she's a talented flyer who dazzled at tryouts this year, she's spent most of her games so far eating shit.
This has been hard on her since she is, unfortunately, a sore loser. When she doesn't perform to the best of her abilities, she doubles down. But her drive to push herself to be better can be more of a downfall than a benefit to her - she pushes herself too hard, and is too critical of herself when she fails. Prone to self-doubt and discouragement, but never a quitter, she frequently finds herself in spats of ill temper and extreme stress as she tries to reconcile these two things.
For someone as talkative and social as she is, she leans introverted. Her mind works fast, and people not keeping up with her has always been a frustration in her life. Because of that, she's usually happy on her own - no matter what she's doing, she's also dreaming up a thousand plans in her head for what she's doing next. Other people are for acting out her teleplays and throwing quods at her head. She's the one at center stage. She doesn't
try to be dismissive or rude to other people, but she can come off that way, thanks to her self-centered nature.
A deeply creative person, she enjoys storytelling (and, relatedly, divination). Much as in everything else, she's keenly aware that she's still growing and learning, and she is often dissatisfied with her own work. Improving her art is something that puzzles her more than improving her athletic skills, though. For that, she frequently enlists the help of other people. She's always looking for opinions, ideas, and collaborators. Being creative together is her primary method of bonding with people, and anyone who is unimaginative or just unwilling to participate is a hard sell on her as far as friendships go.
Despite how much she struggles with feeling like she's not living up to her own potential, she's still a fairly upbeat and optimistic person. She knows she's destined for great things, and a couple flop skits in drama club or bad games in her first Varsity season aren't going to actually stop her from getting there. She's just going to be a little overdramatic about it first.
FUN FACTS:
(OPTIONAL) Use this space to list random factoids about your character. Are they left handed? Do they have any phobias? Are they obsessed with a certain food?
LANGUAGES: English, fluently. For the first few years of her life she was raised bilingual in Spanish and Basque, but she lost both languages after she moved to the US.
HOBBIES: Broomsports, baking, watching weird youtube videos, film criticism, shooting movies, trying new and weird junk foods, adventuring!, debating politics.
SKILLS:
Baking: Her father is a talented cook, but Mia's sweet tooth means she prefers to make baked good. Preferably sticky, gooey, chewy baked goods.
Divination: Still searching for a specialty, but she has a knack for the art. She might describe herself as having "the Sight", but astute observers of her work might notice that it's her gift for storytelling and confabulation that really makes her predictions shine (whether or not they're wholly accurate).
Film Trivia: Try to get her to remember a recipe for a potion she needs to brew for her final and she'll blank, but if you ask her what film won best picture at the Oscars in 1986 and she's ON IT.
Sports: Quodpot is her chosen one, but she has a handful of other hobbies including skateboarding, quidditch, dance, rock climbing, and BMX biking. Her total lack of fear vis-a-vis injuring herself lets her pick up new and risky sports quickly, even if it means she's broken her wrist four times in fifteen years.
Stunts: Also a consequence of her foolhardy nature, there's no stunt too risky for Mia to attempt. She frequently dives off her broom in practices, once jumped off a roof onto a trampoline into a swimming pool, and will do just about anything at a Pocket party if she's had two drinks.
Talking: Dear God, does Mia talk a lot. She never really stops. She is, at least, good at it; her easy charm and quick-witted nature mean that she's almost always telling interesting stories, landing good jokes, and making cutting observations. She's also an adept and frequent liar.
FAMILY:Matzin Samaniego, father, and Martina Cortes, mother. Professional ne'er-do-wells.
Mia is an extremely doted-upon only child. All her cousins and other extended family live in Spain, and she rarely sees them.
BACKGROUND:Mia's parents had her right out of school and when they were in the midst of a years-long backpacking trip around the world. Being pregnant/toting around a newborn/rearing a toddler didn't deter them from their adventures, though. Mia spent the first few years of her life always on the move; the young family lived in Munich, Auckland, Tehran, Tokyo, and Prague by the time she was three. In retrospect, she might be a little disappointed her parents decided to settle down in Philadelphia, of all places. But at the time it was as exciting a new adventure as anything else.
Even if they settled down geographically, her parents never really
found themselves, and they cycled through a string of questionable business ventures when Mia was growing up. They owned a restaurant, they owned a Drive-In/Mini-Golf/Arcade, they flipped houses, they spent a particularly shifty period of time coordinating pyrotechnics for muggle performances. Mia's parents are all guile, and they taught her nothing in the way of responsibility or consequences. There was always someone willing to give them money or a chance, and Mia expects her life to function similarly.
Her parents have certainly always indulged her whims. Two early passions of hers were broom sports and film making, and she's always befitted with the best brooms and cameras her parents can get her, even if they couldn't always afford it comfortably. But even though she had all the makings of a bad work ethic behind her, she managed to avoid that particular trap. Trying her hardest and doing her most is reward in and of itself to her.
When she started at Peckenpaugh, making the Varsity quodpot team was her only goal (a fact that her first semester grades definitely reflected). When she made it during her sophomore year, she wasn't surprised by that - but she
was surprised by the fact that she wasn't immediately the best player on the team. This is a constant burr under her skin, and she overworks herself past the point of productivity. She's trying hard, she just hasn't hit her stride yet.
WAND: Honey locust, thunderbird tail feather, 13 inches, rigid.
FAMILIAR: A Retired Show Ferret rescue with a bad attitude (Pepperjack)
CAREER GOALS: She's going to Hollywood Wizard College to study film and play college Quodpot and that is absolutely as far ahead as she has thought.
PART-TIME JOB: Gastrognome (Baking Assistant)
CLASSES:
Charms: The flashier the better. Memorization and technique are not Mia's favorite areas of study, but for a good pay-off she can play ball.
Potions [H]: Even though she does occasionally get in trouble for, uh, improvising the recipes, she manages to keep up with her honors coursework in this class.
Transfigurations: A problem class for Mia. [OPEN LINE] has been tutoring her in transfig since her freshman year.
Astronomy [H]: Mia is a stargazer by nature, so the fact she can pad her GPA with this class is a windfall for her. Late night is when she's at her most powerful, also, and she is annoyingly peppy during class.
Herbology: Plants don't like Mia. She suspects it's because they know she wants to cut them up and use them in potions.
Hermeticism: Mia struggles with this class, but is considering taking Arithmancy next year, so she has to keep up with it.
History of Magic: She might have trouble with route memorization, but she can find a good story in any history textbook.
Divination [H]: She has a natural talent for it, and prides herself on that. She doesn't have a favored specialty. She's still trying things out.
EXTRA-CURRICULARS:
Adventure Club
Bowling
Culinary Club
Debate
Film [President]
Varsity Quodpot
Mothgarden Quid [Reserve]
SORTING?: A temperamental genius through-and-through, there was really no other home for flighty and curious Mia. She's just as likely to lock down on a question and overthink it as she is to answer it impulsively and move right on. Her sorting was a long one, but only because she got hung up on the winter room's question for 90% of the time she was in there, final decision included.
NAME: JJ
EMAIL: oronsomestar@gmail.com
CDJ: ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
juliajoyOTHER CONTACT: NONE
TIMEZONE: Pacific
Philly's Quodpot team
- mascot is the same species as gritty and the phanatic and it's an actual magical creature (Grimmace is also one)
- vastly inferior to the pittsburgh pistoleers
- mia's very favoritest team in the world