Post by Gretchen Stanton on Nov 3, 2011 21:56:31 GMT -5
Gretchen Stanton
---- THE BASICS
Character's Full Name: Gretchen Rossum-Stanton
Nicknames and Aliases: Gretch, Mrs. Stanton.
Age: 30
Species: Witch
Played By: Bethany Gaeliotti
Appearance: Gretchen is five feet and three inches tall. Naturally, her hair is blond and curly, but sometimes she'll straighten it and she's been known to cut it and dye it brown once in a while just for a change. She has a curvy build - but call her fat or any equivalent of the term and you'll get a stern talking to! She's very comfortable and content with her figure and loves to show it off with tasteful but flattering clothing. When she's at work, she keeps her attire professional, but fun and girly. She'll usually wear a stylish top and a skirt, or if she has to she'll wear a pair of dress slacks. Outside of work, she's all about tank tops, casual dresses, and hats. She loves shoes and accessories, but she's not made of money. Bargain hunting is her favorite pass-time. Overall, she's fond of warm colors and earth tones, but a bright color or a pattern may pop up once in a while just so she can shake things up. She has big brown eyes and tends to accentuate them with make-up. She usually wears bronzer, eyeliner, eye-shadow, and mascara and maybe a little bit of lip gloss. Jeans and plain t-shirts are rare when she's out and about, but do make an appearance if she's feeling under the weather physically or mentally. Sweatpants only make an appearance if she's staying home or going to the gym. She doesn't usually do much with her hair, preferring to toss some gel in it and scrunch it to make her curls pop, and leave it at that. However, she will straighten it or put it in some kind of up-do if she's having a bad hair day.
Personality: Gretchen is all about a fresh start right now. She's coming out of some harsh circumstances, but things are looking up in her opinion, and it shows. Her demeanor is typically bright and cheerful and she tries to greet everyone with a smile. Even if she's in a bad mood or having a bad day, she tries not to deflect that on whoever she talks to. However, she does have her moments where she gets annoyed - particularly when she hasn't had her coffee yet.
Gretchen is naturally curious and tends to ask a lot of questions when introduced to something she doesn't know a lot about. She's not afraid of annoying someone with questions and does not believe there is such a thing as a stupid question. She loves to learn and absorbs new information like a sponge. As a teacher, she encourages her students to ask questions and to challenge her, but she won't stand for being disrespected. She's tough, but fair when it comes to assignments and grading. However, she tries to make her classes interesting and fun, and if a student shows a sincere effort or an interest, she'll do everything she can to help them through a class if they're struggling. She tries to give all her students equal attention, but does tend to have secret favorites. However, she tries not to let that affect her grading or the way she teaches.
As a mother, Gretchen is nurturing and tries to instill a good moral code in her son without being forceful about it. She wants him to be a good kid, of course, but she also wants him to be open-minded and be able to make his own decisions about things so she tries not to jam her opinions down his throat. She's always been protective of Bryce, but she's gotten moreso since her husband's disappearance. One sure way to get Gretchen to drop her cheery disposition is to threaten or insult her son. She does not take kindly to that. Generally, Bryce would probably say Gretchen's a fun mommy, but he wishes she'd worry less.
Gretchen would be a great friend to have if you could keep up with her. She's always busy, leaping from one activity to the next. She's also very intelligent and loves to challenge people in conversation, which she rarely intends to be annoying, but she sometimes doesn't realize it's a bit off-putting. She does whatever she can to help a friend in need, and she's good at keeping a secret and is a good listener. She tries not to say anything bad about anyone and not to give her opinion unless someone wants it.
Although Mitch is gone, Gretchen can't and won't give up on him. As far as she's concerned, she still has a husband she's very much in love with. Although she looks at other men and considers dating once in a while, she still considers herself a married woman, and dating someone else would mean accepting that her husband is dead. She's very reluctant to take that step.
Overall, Gretchen loves to learn and loves to laugh, but she knows when to be serious. She responds well to people who can take criticism as well as give it constructively, and people who don't mind her sarcasm and can match it. She doesn't respond well to bullies or instigators. Her first priority in life is her son. Her second is her job. Music is something she turns to when she needs to relax or is in some kind of a slump. She loves to learn and teach others new things.
Powers and Strengths:
+ Elemental Control :: She can summon and control the elements. Her strongest is earth and her weakest is air.
+ Spell Casting :: She has moderate spell casting abilities and she's particular good at writing her own custom spells.
+ Channeling :: She can channel the power of items and people, though she uses this ability rarely.
+ Mind Manipulation :: She can manipulate the minds of some people, usually as an instinctive reaction to feeling threatened. She can render someone unconscious, inflict pain, or cause temporary disorientation.
+ Resistance to Compulsion :: She has trained herself to resist the outside influence of others on her mind. However, she hasn't encountered any supernaturals to practice it on, so it's not a guaranteed defense.
+ Potion Making :: She can mix potions and elixirs.
+ Intelligent :: She's always been curious and willing to learn and adapt to new things.
+ Independent :: She's been raising her son alone for a while and she's learned to rely heavily on herself to get by.
Vulnerabilities and Weaknesses:
+ She doesn't know much about the supernatural, aside from her own magical abilities.
+ She hasn't used her abilities since her husband disappeared, so she's a bit out of practice.
+ No one ever trained her to use her magic, so all she's learned she's figured out through trial and error.
+ Her son can always be used against her. She would do anything to keep him safe.
+ Her curiosity often gets the best of her, and she doesn't always know when to stop digging into something.
+ She's new to Mystic Falls and doesn't know many people yet. She also hasn't learned her way around.
+ She has a tendency to panic under stress.
---- HISTORY
Gretchen was born in Atlanta, Georgia on July 1, 1981 to David and Abigail Rossum. She was preceded by a brother, Matthew Rossum, who was six years old when she was born. Unknown to Gretchen, she was adopted. Her mother was a professor of History at Augusta State University and her father was an architect and aspiring musician. Growing up, Gretchen developed an interest in all three of her parents' passions: history, architecture, and music.
When she started school, Gretchen took to it like a fish to water. She was a good student and saw learning as something fun she couldn't get enough of. This made her a target of bullying, but she didn't let that stop her from satisfying her curiosity for all things academic. Hurt feelings and tears were a small price to pay for getting answers to every question she had and learning new things. In particular, Gretchen loved reading and had a nack for writing papers. Her father also taught her to play piano and guitar, and she loved singing.
When she was in middle school Gretchen took an aptitude test designed to gage a student's overall academic placement to help place them in the right courses in high school. However, her scores were remarkably high - the highest a student from that particular middle school had ever scored. She was given an I.Q. test and received a score that placed her at genius level intelligence. There was an article about it in the local paper and everything. She entered high school as a freshman, but was placed in higher level classes shortly after her enrollment when her teachers were concerned she was bored. She was taking English and History classes with juniors and seniors.
Gretchen really came into her own socially in her sophomore year of high school. A late bloomer, she finally blossomed and came out of her awkward stage. Despite being a bookworm and a bit of a nerd, Gretchen's looks and fashion sense drew the attention of the boys in her classes. This led to her dating a lot and being exposed to a lot of different cliques and social groups. Her first boyfriend was Josh O'Leary, a senior and captain of the football team. Much to the surprise of pretty much the whole school, the most popular guy seemed to like her. This earned her an automatic spot in the popular crowd, which was awkward and overwhelming. Suddenly life was full of parties and football games and everyone knew who she was. She wasn't into sports, but she was on the school newspaper and yearbook staffs. However, she always put her studies first, which didn't sit well with Josh. He broke up with her the summer after he graduated when he was about to go off to college, saying he wanted to explore his options and be someone's priority. Gretchen began her junior year a heartbroken outcast and things became very difficult socially. So, she threw herself into her schoolwork and ended up graduating from high school a year early due to all her advanced placement classes.
After graduating high school, Gretchen attended Northeastern University where she earned a BA in English and minored in Architectural Studies. It was at Northeastern that she met her future husband, Mitch Stanton. They met during their freshman year in a lecture class and she always caught him copying her notes. When she confronted him about it, he said he had trouble keeping up with the lecture, and she took really good notes. She offered to help him study and they became friends. When it came time to leave for summer break, Mitch confessed that he had a crush on her and asked her to go on a date with him before they left for the summer. She agreed and they had an awkward, but fun first date and kept in touch over the summer. When they returned to school he convinced her to try another date. She agreed and this date was a success and the two became a couple shortly after. They dated until they graduated and then had to separate while Gretchen completed a graduate program at Yale University, earning a Ph.D in English and Literature. They still saw each other and still loved each other, but he was still living in Boston, Massachusetts while she was living in New Haven, Connecticut, staying with a friend from college. This made it difficult for them to carry on a relationship long distance, but they tried.
After grad school, Gretchen returned to Boston and she and Mitch got an apartment together while she worked and completed an accelorated program to earn her teaching certificate and Mitch had a job at a local paper. Her relationship with Mitch mended itself once they were living together and the complications of Gretchen's schooling were out of the way. This proved itself true when Gretchen discovered she was pregnant. It wasn't at all planned, and Gretchen's life was all about planning, so it rattled her quite a bit. However, Mitch was ecstatic and his excitement rubbed off on her. The two broke the news of their engagement and the pregnancy to their families and friends and got married soon after in a small ceremony.
It was during Gretchen's pregnancy that her magical abilities began to manifest. A late bloomer once again. Having no knowledge of her ancestry, Gretchen had no idea how to explain the odd things that began happening. She would get upset and a harsh wind would blow through the apartment. She'd get nervous and something would catch on fire. The more she ignored these changes, the worse they got and she and Mitch were at a loss for an explanation. After doing a bit of research, Gretchen found some information on witchcraft. She read anything she could find and started trying to control her new abilities.
On June 15, 2003, Bryce Stanton was born. Mitch took a second job through a contractor while Gretchen stayed home with the baby. In 2004, Gretchen decided it was time for her to get to work. Mitch was resistant to the idea, but Gretchen could see the toll juggling two jobs was taking on Mitch and she was itching to get back to the world of academia. She got a teaching job at a middle school outside of Boston working as a substitute. It wasn't ideal, but it was better than nothing. Gretchen and Mitch continued working, putting away money to eventually buy a house, and Mitch's sister became their day-time baby-sitter, which Gretchen appreciated since she didn't like the idea of daycare.
After a little over a year of bouncing between schools as a substitute teacher, Gretchen landed a job teaching English at a high school in a small New Hampshire town. It was a long commute to work every day, but she enjoyed her job and her students. She had her family at home, a solid job, and things finally felt settled. For almost two years, life was good and Gretchen was content.
In the winter of 2007, Mitch was driving home from work in a snow storm, and when it took him too long to get home considering his usual time, Gretchen got worried. When she fell asleep on the couch waiting for him and woke up in the morning and he still wasn't home she tried calling his cell phone. When he didn't answer, she called his sister to see if she'd heard from him and then she called the police. Mitch's car was found on the side of the road mid-way between the paper and Mitch's apartment. Gretchen learned there had been an accident involving her husband's car and another vehicle. The other driver was dead, and Mitch was missing.
The search for Mitch went strong for six months, during which time Gretchen held out hope that he was alive and would be found as long as they kept looking. She continued working and taking care of her son with the help of her sister-in-law. However, once the trail went cold on Mitch, the authorities had to step back, which was a crushing blow to Gretchen. Adding insult to injury, she also could no longer afford to live in her apartment without the help of Mitch's income. She ended up moving back to Atlanta, Georgia with Bryce to live with her brother, Matthew, and his girlfriend. Gretchen took a break from full-time teaching and started giving private music lessons instead, teaching children to play the piano and guitar. Her brother helped support Gretchen and her son financially, which didn't go over well with his girlfriend and caused a bit of friction.
Gretchen and Bryce lived with Matthew and Gretchen got a job as a music teacher at one of the local elementary schools so she could make more money. This got Matthew's girlfriend off his back, but he ended up breaking off the relationship anyway, not liking the way she'd acted when he tried to support his grieving sister.
Gretchen recently found an affordable house in the town of Mystic Falls, Virginia. She'd never heard of the town, but the house was in her price range and exactly what she was looking for, so she and Bryce moved there and she began giving private music lessons while she looked for a full-time teaching job. She felt like luck was finally on her side when a job teaching English at Mystic Falls High landed in her lap... that was until she learned the previous English teacher was mauled by a mountain lion. How one of those things got in the building she had no idea...
---- ROLE PLAY SAMPLE
Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting - all there's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the-
The song was cut short when Gretchen's hand slapped the off button on her clock radio's alarm. A small groan escaped her as she rolled over. Of all the songs to wake her up, did it really have to be Taylor Swift? Not that she had anything against her, but she wasn't exactly a fan. Gretchen sat up, her blond curly hair sprouting out and frizzing all over. It was 5:45 and the sun wasn't quite up yet, giving the room a cold, uninviting feeling without the warm rays streaming through the windows. Gretchen hated this time of day.
After a few minutes of stretching and adjusting her eyes, she stood and began her new daily routine. Get her outfit, picked out and hung on the closet doorknob the night before, pee, brush her teeth, shower, get dressed, make coffee, eat a bowl of oatmeal. She was leaning against the kitchen counter sipping a cup of coffee by 6:30, waiting for the water in the tea kettle to boil. A bowl of dry oatmeal sat waiting behind her. This would probably be her most peaceful, quiet moment of the day. It was the moment when she began to wake up every morning, and fifteen minutes before she had to go get Bryce out of bed and begin his morning routine. From there on it would be organized chaos.
When the tea kettle whistled Gretchen set her coffee down and shut the stove off, pouring the steaming water into her oatmeal bowl and stirring with a spoon. She wasn't really a breakfast person before 9 A.M., but if she didn't eat something she'd be starving in a few hours. She brought the bowl and the mug of coffee to the kitchen table and sat down to enjoy a quiet breakfast while the sun began to shine brightly outside.
Her mornings never used to be this quiet. Her brother usually woke up at around the same time and he'd sit and talk with her at his kitchen table. Before that she and Mitch would sit down to breakfast in the small moments before their son woke up. A little slice of couple time. She smiled at the thought of him sitting across from her with a plate of eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, and maybe a few frozen waffles if he was feeling ambitious. He was always starving when he woke up. She sighed and took a long sip of coffee. Suddenly the silence seemed deafening.
She finished her oatmeal and went up to Bryce's room without checking the time, knocking softly on his door.
"Bryce, honey, are you up?"
More silence greeted her and she opened the door wide enough for her to peek inside. She could see a little lump of what looked like a balled up blanket on the bed. Gretchen took a few steps inside, picking up a few articles of clothing from the floor and tossing them into Bryce's little hamper in the corner of the room. She wasn't sure if it was dirty clothing or not, but it wouldn't hurt to wash a clean shirt. He was in the stage where he wanted to pick out his own outfits, and sometimes he went through several different pieces of clothing before he decided on what he wanted to wear. That usually resulted in a few casualties getting tossed on the floor and forgotten about. This morning it was the pants from his Spider-man pajamas, the top from his Toy Story pajamas, a lone blue sock, and one yellow rain boot. She picked up the boot, wondering if he'd considered wearing it to bed, and chuckled as she placed it in the closet.
"Bryce, time to wake up, sweetie."
The little lump of blankets stirred. Gretchen sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled back the blanket to reveal Bryce's blond head. He scrunched up his face and rolled over, burrowing into the blankets. Gretchen ruffled what little hair he had with her hand and he mumbled something she couldn't make out. She laid down beside him and pulled him into a hug.
"Out of bed, sleepyhead!"
Bryce struggled sleepily and rubbed his eyes.
"MoOOOooommm!" he whined.
"BryYYYyyyce!" she replied, copying his tone.
She gave him a tight squeeze and kissed his cheek before sitting up and smiling down at him. He was opening his eyes and blinking, giving her a sour look at the same time. He hated waking up and was always a grump about it. She couldn't blame him there. She was the same way before she had her coffee. Mitch had been the only morning person in their family. He was always the first one awake and he was the type who whistled while he got dressed and made breakfast. She was trying her best to be a more cheerful morning riser, at least when she was getting Bryce out of bed and trying to put a smile on his face before he started his day.
Once Bryce was awake enough that she was sure he wouldn't fall back asleep as soon as she left, Gretchen went back downstairs and started making pancakes. Bryce shared Mitch's morning appetite and he was always happier once he ate breakfast. As she rushed to mix the batter, she glanced at the digital clock on the microwave and realized she'd woken Bryce up nearly half an hour early. She sighed and stopped mixing for a few seconds to take a deep breath. Had she actually gone and gotten her son out of bed just because she couldn't sit in that kitchen alone any longer? The poor kid. As if it wasn't hard enough for him to have to pack up and move yet again and get used to a new school in a new town, but now his mother was a neurotic mess on top of it.
This was going to be a long day.
---- THE PLAYER
Alias: admin/caro/bet
RP Experience: Intermediate/Advanced 3-ish years
Contact: PM, MSN: OohBaracuda@live.com, YIM: mellowmarsh21