McHaggis

The Walking Dead: What Lies Ahead

Finished my writing sample. Gawd, I couldn't think about what to do it on.

Hogwarts: Legacy of Lord Voldemort

James MacFusty

Jimmy sauntered into the hall, oozing confidence and the smell of roses from his pores. The malfunction of the charm had begun to tickle his nose and clog up his throat with the cloying scent of the flowers. At some point on his trip down the stairs he had definitely started to regret being a wizard, and more than that breaking the first rule his parents had taught him: never, ever, ever cast a spell that you don't know.

And there were the Gryffindor girls! Adelie at the table – she'd probably laugh at him being caught by the Headmaster after his ritual morning flight. In all the time he'd at Hogwarts and used that particular secret staircase, he'd never had the misfortune of encountering Professor Gurgenhiem.

Wait, she was standing already? Did he miss breakfast?

Without so much as a hello, Jimmy warned Adelie to, “Wait, wait...” as he ran towards the Gryffindor's table, grabbing an apple – two, after a moment's hesitation – and returned to Adelie and Evanora.

“Mornin',” he greeted in between bites of apple.

The Walking Dead: What Lies Ahead

Might add some more characters later :3

Malik Thornton

MALIK THORNTON, 21
NURSING STUDENT & PART-TIME HOSPITAL PORTER
APPEARANCE: As pictured. Malik is particularly weed-like with a thin figure at 6'2”. Despite this, he is not particularly healthy, living on junk food and takeaways – he is just blessed with a difficulty for putting on weight. He is traditionally handsome with (fairly girly) windswept hair and strong, angular facial features. Darker skin betrays his mother's Indian heritage and he is the mirror image of the men in her family.

PERSONALITY: Malik is an easy-going, loud-mouthed student who is so “chillaxed” (as he puts it) that he is borderline lazy and disinterested in life. Somewhat immature, he has a bad habit of aspiring to be the best and becoming apathetic when he doesn't reach that target. Despite his lack of achievements, he is fairly arrogant, having been told all his life that he is gifted and destined to amount to something; therefore, he likes to be independent and thinks he can do a job better than anyone else – including leading a group to survival in this post-apocalyptic world – even when he is unsuited to such a task.

ETHNICITY: Mixed – mother is Indian, father is White American.

EQUIPMENT: All of his supplies are in a large, expensive hiking bag that has never before been used. It is dark brown and still has its price tag on it:
– Pilfered first aid supplies including bandages, surgical scissors, antibiotic creams, rubbing alcohol and hand sanitiser.
– Over the counter drugs like paracetemol, ibuprofen and anti-histamines as well as boxes of heavy prescription painkillers.
– One 2L bottle of what was once Pepsi, now water.
– Two heavy textbooks from his nursing course with basic medical information.
– Two sets of clean clothes, thin and unsuited to the falling temperatures.
– A brown army jacked inherited from his father and a purple scarf with a princess pattern on it.

WEAPONS: Nothing to take out a walker with – only scalpels, which are more suited for use on a human target, and syringes.

FAMILY:
Rashmi || Mother || Unknown || Left family when Malik was seven. Sparked her son's interest in medicine.
Eddie || “Father” || Unknown || Lives on other side of town. Malik moved out and took sister with him.
Kali || Sister || Alive || Age 16. Has made her way across town from school to find Malik.

PAST:
The Thornton family was never destined for stability. His father, Eddie Thornton, is a Vietnam war veteran significantly older than his mother. Rashmi is a scientist who emigrated to America in search of an opportunity to have a career in biological science and Eddie was her chance to have children and a 'housewife' life while maintaining her position as a woman in a STEM field. After a rushed wedding, marital bliss was hard to come by with fertility issues on Eddie's side making not impossible but certainly difficult for the pair to reproduce. On her quest to get her two point five kids, Rashmi took matters into her own hands and had an affair for the sole purpose of having Malik.

Though there were doubts, the truth behind Malik's paternity was not revealed until after his younger sister was born (who is legitimately Eddie's child). In an argument about some unrelated problem, Rashmi came out with it as she was leaving for another state. After this, while he was never physically abusive, Eddie became distant from Malik – an understandable reaction. Therefore, as Malik grew up hearing awful verbal abuse from the veteran, he didn't blame the man himself. Instead, he turned his anger towards his mother and by extension, women.

Tensions were heated even further in his teenage years as Malik's grades began to slip from brilliant and prodigious down to above-average, mostly because he spent most of his time wandering the streets with a crowd of other 'slackers' rather than in his own home. School work and studying became things to avoid, even though he did in his heart want to become a doctor. His results in the end were decent but nowhere near good enough to get into medical school as he dreamed so he was forced into the 'lower' path of becoming a nurse.

Once he was accepted into college, he moved into a small flat partially funded by his rich great-grandmother despite not being biologically related to her. For spare spending money, he got an 'easy' job as a hospital porter, which also gave him some work experience in the meanwhile. Kali came to live with him during the summers, mostly because Eddie was distant from her – perhaps doubting her paternity too. Like many students, he spent what he had on booze, partying and video games.

On the first day of the outbreak, working in the hospital, he saw a dead man come back to life that had to be put down. Seeing the bite wounds on two of the nurses and a doctor – similar to the ones plaguing the now dreadfully ill overnight workers from the previous shift – Malik instinctively knew this was a bad situation in the making. When reports from other hospitals began flooding in, he went to the pharmacy where only the assistant was working and begged and bribed her to split the supplies with him, determined to prepare for the worst case scenario. It took all the money in his wallet – a few hundred dollars – and a whole lot of convincing before she agreed to split the high-value medicines between them and escape.

Malik had no intention of leaving his house for work or any other reason; however, with no food around and sister sticking by his side, he knows he will eventually need to go outside and find something.

Kali Thornton

KALI THORNTON, 16
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT & ASPIRING ACTRESS


APPEARANCE: As pictured. Kali, for a sixteen year old, looks like a woman much older – or at the very least, an adult. She has a particularly voluptuous figure with curves in the right places, masking lean muscles and a reasonably athletic build. The remnants of a rebellious phase are still present in the form of two lip piercings and a fading tattoo of a rose on her lower back. Kali dyes her hair a reddish-brown colour but it is naturally black like Malik's.

PERSONALITY: Unlike her brother, Kali is shrewdly ambitious when it comes to her life and sets ridiculously high standards for herself. She is an all or nothing type in that if she takes up a new hobby or aspires to do something, she will research every possible angle and ensures she knows everything about it. Her demeanour can be easily mistaken for (and usually is) flirtatious, whether it be around friends or her own family. Her arrogance is palpable; it oozes from every pore and is evident in the way she thinks herself infallible. She is not particularly kind – a self-described “ice queen” with a deficiency in morals to boot – but she makes up for it with fierce independence and a hard-working, go-getter attitude. Who needs friends?

ETHNICITY: Mixed – mother is Indian, father is White American.

EQUIPMENT: Kali was in the dorms at school when her brother phoned, asking – if she could – to return to his apartment. Therefore, everything she owns is in a large duffel bag she uses to carry her gear for dancing, singing and drama lessons. It includes:
– Roughly five days worth of clean clothing
– Her dancing leotard and ballet shoes
– Two low-fat cereal bars
– Stolen goods: 3 iPhones, $100, an inhaler, Adderall, bedsheets, a sewing kit
– A copy of a 'A Streetcar Named Desire'
– Mace and a rape alarm on her keychain

WEAPONS: Mace against other humans, otherwise no weapons. She would have to just pick up something from her surroundings if necessary to take out a walker.

FAMILY:
Rashmi || Mother || Unknown || Doesn't remember her very much; only briefly in contact.
Eddie || Father || Unknown || Ambivalent about father – brother takes care of her more.
Malik || Brother || Alive || Currently hiding with in his apartment.

PAST:
Kali can't remember a time when her family was fully together as she was very young when her mother left, planting the seeds of doubt in her father's mind that both of his children were illegitimate instead of just one. Her brother was her primary caregiver – not because her father, Eddie, didn't care about her but he was always distant, having bonded with his apparent son only to find out he wasn't his. Like her brother, Kali was a dangerously intelligent child with some of the highest scores in her class; however, she had the cunning and aspirations to make use of it.

When she was a teenager, her great-grandmother paid for her to attend a prestigious boarding school specialising in the theatrical pursuits of drama, music and dance and she made the most of it. Well-loved by her teachers if not her peers, she was often given leading roles as the dramatic antagonist or anti-hero for no reason other than she was excellent at it. Entering an amateur beauty pagent hosted by a partner of the school, she won first place – and it certainly did wonders for her ego, if not her social life. Her success, percieved by many to be the result of sucking up to the teachers (as it was), did not win her any friends, only passive-aggressive enemies.

As soon as Malik moved into his own apartment, she decided to share with him during the summer months rather than head home to be with her father – a man beginning a slow descent into alcoholism. She manipulated her brother into letting her live there without getting a part-time job, although she did manage to find a role in a commercial for a second-rate skin product. The money went on a black scooter that she stores at the school.

On the first day of the outbreak, Malik managed to get a hold of her over the internet and told her to return home immediately out of worry for her safety. Kali obeyed, to an extent, and took the time to pilfer the rooms of missing students nearby – a fitting revenge for their cold treatment of her. Then she ignored the orders of the adult supervisors in the dorms and headed outside, taking her scooter to the apartment on the other side of town. Somehow, she made it; however, she noticed a lot of strange, sickly people either collapsing on the streets or attacking folk recklessly on the way. Just before she reached Malik's home, she was knocked over by a car swerving to avoid a walker (though she didn't know it at the time) and had to limp the rest of the way there.

Writing Sample

“Damon? I fuckin' hate you sometimes, man.”

Crouched over, clutching his stomach as if it was trying to wriggle away from him, Malik emptied his breakfast, lunch and dinner onto the filthy ground. Alleyways were gross, he decided. If the beers hadn't already sent his innards into doing loop-de-loops, the stagnant water mixed with mushy cardboard and cockroach-infested cans certainly would have.

Damon, a pale-skinned student with blonde hair and blue eyes – the very image of an angel – laughed and laughed until tears formed in the corner of his eyes, illuminated by the street lights. “Thought you were a medical student, bro. Didn't expect you to get so... ill,” he said, stifling chuckles. Malik couldn't understand just what was funny about him vomiting like he never had before, but he wiped his mouth unhygienically on the back of his hand and stood up to face his friend.

“Nursing student,” Malik spat out, glaring at Damon. Idiot, spiking his drink – why couldn't it have been some blonde girl's instead? Then maybe he might have actually gotten some action. “If you weren't my only hope to get home, I'd kill you right now with my bare hands. Now, so help me God, you will phone me a taxi and you will pay for it.”

Damon waved him off, citing, “'Course I'm not going to pay for it. You owe me ten–“

A girl in the distance screamed bloody murder, mixed in with a few 'help me's and 'Oh God's that were obviously male. When Malik concentrated past the feeling of his head and the earth spinning in different directions, he could tell that they weren't too far over from them – on the other side of the street, actually. Thus, when a gunshot went off, both the drunk students jolted upright.

“What the hell?” Damon asked, rolling up his sleeves and preparing to head out there.

The same girl from before, hysteria plain as day in her voice, shrieked, “He bit me! Who even does that?” It wasn't in response to Damon, of course, but the timing was almost divine in its delivery.

“Damon, someone over there has a gun. And I ain't going to stick around to see if they're trigger-happy or just friendly, 'cause this is the bad part of town you brought me to,” Malik managed to get out, using the wall as a crutch to follow the alleyway in the opposite direction from the commotion.

Damon shook his head, staring for one last moment and turning to walk with his friend. “Nah, man. It's not the bad part of town. Something's not right there.”

A few more drinks would erase the memory, and worry, from their minds.

Forsaken Children of War (Kirah and McHaggis)

Siobhan mulled over Kyle's revelation for a few seconds. In just a few words, Maggie's image in her mind had changed drastically from 'kind friend of Alistair's' to 'do not trust; her own brother is scared of her'. Tucking her legs in from under her, she mumbled an uncharacteristically quiet, "Thanks for telling me."

Alistair probably didn't realise Maggie's true nature; he was too kind for that. Still, she wondered what kind of people he was really hanging out with.

Picking at her skirt for a few more silent moments, she eventually turned to the window at peered at the countryside speeding by. "When d'ya think we'll get there?"

Forsaken Children of War (Kirah and McHaggis)

Siobhan seemed to be radiating happiness as she reached over and accepted the card. She wasn't sure if her smile could get any wider. "You compile me a list of what you don't have and I'll get 'em off my sisters for you." It would be worth it. If she stole them (back) for herself, they'd somehow find and reclaim them.

As for his second question, it was near-impossible to explain; a spur of the moment observation. "It seemed... well," Siobhan hesitated. "You were being all frowny when your sister was in here. Maybe I imagined it." But she didn't, she was sure of that. None of her siblings had ever looked like that when she walked in the room.

[High Casual] Frontier: The Great Space Rebellion

Caelum is borderline ambivalent about everyone, except slightly dislikes Scott because of the nicknames for everyone else and Nicki because HOW DARE SHE TEAR UP THAT PAPER WITHOUT ASKING, GAWD. Oh and likes Pascal the most because he doesn't talk and he's French (sort of).

Forsaken Children of War (Kirah and McHaggis)

"She seems nice," Siobhan said when Maggie left the compartment, more to herself than anyone else. "I can see why Alistair likes her." She did wonder why her brother only mentioned her by name before, never giving out any information, but she supposed he wanted to keep his friends his. Some people were like that, she had read.

"Ooh, you collect cards?" The youngest MacFusty's obvious interest shone through on her face. "My brothers and sisters used to swipe mine when ever I tried to build it. All's fair in love and war, y'know? At least that's what they said."

Siobhan peered curiously at Kyle, feeling that something was different between the time his sister had been in the room and after she'd left, something that she couldn't put her finger on. "What's up?"

Hogwarts: Legacy of Lord Voldemort

Gryffindor Tower – 7th Year Boys Dorm
James MacFusty

Jimmy had all but dived through the portrait's secret entrance, embarrassment in front of the Professor be damned. The spiral staircase was rickety with gaps between each step and an ominous creaking noise that sounded with even the slightest bit of pressure; however, he figured if it had lasted so many centuries already, it was going to be fine.

Though he suspected there were more individual steps than the Grand Staircase, at least these ones didn't move.

At the top, he barged into the common room just as his roommates were leaving, prompting a few startled laughs. He didn't have to waste breath on the password that way. As soon as he was at his bed, he dumped his sweaty Quiddich gear on top of all his books and parchment and quills scattered over the relatively clean bedspread. He'd clean it later, or hope the house elves would do it for him.

The very moment a tempus charm left his lips, he knew he was doomed. He'd never be able to have a shower before breakfast, not without being late to his first class, and Adelie would have a fit if he did that again. Even though he was a slob – as his half-buttoned shirt and loose tie proved – he didn't want to stink of exercise all day...

“What was that spell again..?” he asked himself, waving his wand haphazardly in an attempt to mimic his ma's casting at home. An air-freshening charm that worked on a couch would surely work on a human, right?

The answer, as it turned out, was 'sort of'. Jimmy began a hurried walk down to the Great Hall smelling distinctly (and strongly) of roses.

Forsaken Children of War (Kirah and McHaggis)

Huehue, "Maggie is so nice."

I'm sure Kyle thinks the same x)

Forsaken Children of War (Kirah and McHaggis)

Passing on buying anything from the trolley (mostly because of the motion sickness from the train), Siobhan settled more comfortably in her corner while Kyle bought an assortment of sweets. Was that licorice? Ew. Her nose wrinkled involuntarily as if imagining the taste of it on in her mouth. If there was one thing that bound all of the MacFusty children together, it was their hatred for licorice.

"Hi!" greeted Siobhan. Kyle's sister must be nice, she decided, to willingly check up on two little lost first years out of her own time. "Yeah, Slytherin – that's where Alistair is, so that's where I'm going." She smiled at the thought of her brother. That was one mystery solved; he did talk to his friends about her.

"You're Maggie, right? Is Alistair away to his prefect's meeting?"