Post by Octavia on Feb 20, 2014 17:22:04 GMT -8
Name: Octavia
Age: 16
Class: Mage 5
Personality: Stubborn as a mule and twice as ornery, Octavia is an acquired taste at the best of times. While not actively abrasive, her personality has evolved into something that could best be described as caustic, a combination of self-assurance and maybe a bit of ego only natural for a girl who has found that everything tends to work out in her benefit if she applies herself. Her social inadequacies do little to endear her to others, but a strong moral compass and her generally positive outlook mitigate her from raging hellbitch all the way down to uppity class valedictorian - she is intelligent and resourceful and quite aware of both facts, though not so clueless as to flaunt either for their own sakes.
She has trouble getting into the minds of others and rarely cares to try, not particularly interested in what people she is not interested in are thinking, nor does Octavia see any issue with this attitude. She would rather learn from those she idolizes or great minds from history, and does not yet see the value in alternative perspectives, though her temporal adventure has left her somewhat adrift and liable to pay more attention to Natalie's silliness than she usually would. N-not that she cares about her or anything, b-baka.
Backstory: Culled from an orphanage at a young age by the barren headmistress of a prestigious magical academy as a result of her innate propensity for magic, Octavia's start into the world of magic was a rough beginning, but a learning experience nonetheless. While her adoptive mother was more than willing to shower the daughter she had never been able to have with affection, the necessities of her position, as well as her strong moral fibre, ensured that Octavia quickly learned she was expected to pull her own weight rather than relying on favoritism or any degree of lowered standards. In private, they could be a family - but during the day, she struggled with classes on magical theory and the byzantine intricacies of social structures of year-round boarding school.
It was not unpleasant by any means; loved by her surrogate mother and challenged by her work, Octavia learned to excel, to silence accusations of favoritism by leaving both them and her detractors in her wake.To take life as a challenge rather than to merely survive - a combination of the spark of natural independence stoked into a raging flame, her desire to please and earn the recognition of a mother who expected much from her, and general enjoyment of the subject matter all combined to ensure that she quickly rose to the top of her class, determined to succeed on her own merits. She also learned an intense distaste for asking for help for any reason, or even relying on others at all, both traits that the socially stunted girl has had trouble shaking ever since.
Blessed with natural beauty and having earned a reputation for excellence, Octavia managed to attain a fair degree of popularity from afar, with a certain degree of ego to match, but her borderline-caustic personality ensured that she made few friends, and her own difficulty in telling who simply wanted something from her and who was actually interested in her ensured that the blonde witch ended up pushing away a few people who might otherwise have qualified for lasting friendships. A lonely existence, perhaps, but it seemed ludicrous to complain - most of the students in the school would have given much to trade places with her, she had a mother who cared for her, and she had heard the term prodigy bandied about more than a few times by students and visitors alike as her natural magical aptitude, excellent memory, and unrelenting drive combined to propel her ever upwards.
By the time she graduated, Octavia had managed a grand total of one friend, a girl she had competed with over the years and never gotten along with in the least. They were hardly even friends, not that she was really sure or entirely willing to broach the subject, but it seemed that St. Elimine loved a fool - as poorly as they got on, they made a hell of a team, ending up winning a major tournament together through the judicious application of an unplanned alliance. It was a bit of a lonely graduation, but seeing the look on her proud mother's face, as she realized how far she had come and the sheer number of people she had long since passed, made up for it pretty well. She had her life ahead of her, an easy position as a lecturer at the academy or the credentials for any number of positions at various magical research academies and the like across Etruria.
It took less than a week to be dragged kicking and screaming a thousand years into the past, a world in which none of what she had accomplished mattered, in which none of her accomplishments even existed. While not exactly the best case scenario, Octavia decided to make the best of it, to etch her name into history however she could in order to honor her mother's belief in her, and maybe, if time travel even worked that way, to let her know that she was okay. While not particularly ambitious on her own, the temporally displaced witch had long since found that she functioned best when focused on something, anything, and mastering her expanded abilities in a world where magic was rampant seemed like her greatest challenge yet. Or a great way to get herself killed. She'd burn that bridge after she crossed it.
