Vanamonde Von Mekkhan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thisperfectsaucer) wrote2012-07-15 03:52 pm
thisperfectsaucer) wrote2012-07-15 03:52 pm
Entry tags:
(no subject)
Player Information
Name: Inkwell
Timezone: PST in summer, EST during school year
Personal Journal:misterporcelain
Players Contact/AIM/MSN/YAHOO: AIM: misterporcelain; plurk:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
mister_inkwell
Email Address: misterporcelain at gmail dot com
Former/Other Characters in the RP: n/a
How did you hear about us?: Lynny's plurk is what made me want to app, but I'd known about you for ages just through generally being in the dwrp scene.
Character Information
Name: Vanamonde Heliotrope Von Mekkhan
Canon Origin/Series: Girl Genius
School Year: 5th
Gender: Male
Age: 15
Out of school living location: Mechanicsburg, Germany
Blood status: Halfblood (deceased wizard father, muggle mother)
Personality: I'll be using both canon and HPverse information for this, so apologies in advance if it gets confusing. You may want to read the background sections first, since personality is built on those.
In a nutshell, Vanamonde is an intensely loyal young man with a dedication to family tradition, a wry wit, and a strong work ethic. His loyalty especially is a very important part of his character: in canon, his family's loyalty to the Heterodynes is their entire being, and having one in residence in Mechanicsburg literally fills a hole in their lives. Van is so loyal to his Heterodyne, Agatha, that he literally cannot imagine her failing despite her being up against several armies all at once, and he's willing to put his life on the line for her. He also faces down a man holding a knife to his assistant's throat and who just assaulted his mother, putting their safety above his own.
In HPverse that translates to a fierce love of his friends and family. He'll get downright dangerous if those people are threatened, and will take their side no matter what that entails, and even if he disagrees with what they're doing (in canon, the Heterodynes did some Very Questionable Things and the Von Mekkhans usually deferred to their decisions). However, he will speak up about his feelings on the matter, because he takes his role as adviser very seriously and believes that being honest is better than staying quiet.
This is another thing about Van. If given a job, he'll pour himself into it with 100% seriousness. I hardly have to mention how this manifests in canon, but in HPverse it applies to his work at the coffee shop, his work taking care of the Heterodynes, his schoolwork and even just doing favors for his friends like watching their owl for a few days. He has a huge attention to detail and is something of a perfectionist, and so doing a less-than-stellar job at anything is something he doesn't want to contemplate. He's a coffee addict because it keeps him awake and functioning, and he does have a bit of an issue with overworking himself and putting his own health below completing a task he's been assigned. In canon, he didn't sleep for days during the initial invasion of Mechanicsburg in order to better be able to coordinate then resistance and keep the townspeople safe.
He isn't just a boring, all-work-and-no-play boy, though. Van has quite a wit on him and often lightens the tone of a tense conversation with a well-timed wry observation. He's well-spoken and quite enjoys conversation, especially because he's an avid people-watcher and tends to pick up gossip easily, meaning that he always has something to talk about. Though his group of truly close friends is small, he always has a kind word for everyone and is generally polite until someone proves themselves to be not worth the effort. He's even a bit of a flirt, though usually only with those he knows won't be bothered by it. While romance is hardly his first priority, he does have a few romance novels tucked into his trunk along with his schoolbooks.
Van is also a dandy. His attention to detail and natural organization means that he's well-dressed and well-groomed at all times, and he has a certain stylistic flair that, while not flamboyant, marks him apart in terms of dress. He dyes part of his hair blond because he likes the way it looks and it's a way to set himself apart, but also still within the Hogwarts rules of having only 'natural' hair color. His clothing when not in school uniform is often a mix of muggle and wizarding clothes thanks to his halfblood heritage, and he very much enjoys more 'dressy' clothes like pinstriped trousers and vests, often in bright wizarding sorts of colors like purple and teal. He believes in always putting his best foot forward in terms of visual presentation as much as work ethic.
Canon Background: Vanamonde's world is an alternate-history, branching off in the early 1800s. The most notable difference is the presence of Sparks, humans with a particular affinity for the sciences. A Spark has access to a part of their brain called the Madness Place that a normal human does not, enabling them to make amazing inventions in minutes out of nothing but twine and pliars. Unfortunately, accessing the Madness Place results in. Uh. Madness. Most Sparks for this reason are feared and respected, especially because most of them tend to be in positions of power. They are domineering and charismatic people and very easily gather followers.
If you want to understand Vanamonde's history you need to have an understanding of the history of House Heterodyne. The Heterodynes are an extremely old and illustrious Spark family, one of the strongest in the known world. The house was founded in Mechanicsburg by a barbarian who recognized it for the exceptionally defensible place it was. It eventually grew into a large town with high walls and excellent defense systems, ruled by the Heterodynes up until twenty years prior to current canon.
As Sparks and strong Sparks at that, the Heterodynes were and are very charismatic. The town of Mechanicsburg is peopled almost entirely by minions, all of whom are fiercely loyal to the Heterodyne family and who would defend the city with their lives. I could link to pages and pages of the comic where this is evident ('My family were gravediggers to the Masters for generations, and I heard there's a new Master, so I dug up this rat because it's all I could find!' coming out of the mouth of a wee little child is pretty convincing, especially when you take into account that there hadn't been a Heterodyne in power since at least a decade before his birth) but that would clutter this section. The point is, everyone in Mechanicsburg is a minion to the Heterodynes, and Vanamonde comes from the family that is arguably full of the strongest minions of all. They serve as the Seneschals and have for generations, acting as chief advisers to the Heterodynes and helping to maintain order in the town.
When the Heterodynes went missing in the middle of the Other War twenty years prior to current canon, the Von Mekkhans never gave up hope that they would one day return to administrate the town. Van was only a baby at the time; he lost his father in the initial attack on Castle Heterodyne and was raised by his mother and grandfather. Carson Von Mekkhan adopted the name Heliotrope and carried on administrating the town in secret, even after Baron Wulfenbach (the new world power, who came in after the Other War and started consolidating Europe into one empire known as Europa Wulfenbach) appointed his own town council.
Heterodyne 'heirs' would show up every few months, attempting to reclaim the family birthright, and the Von Mekkhans would sent them all into Castle Heterodyne to be tested. Given that the Castle was sentient and required blood to perform this test, all of them were found to be pretenders and never came back out alive again. This was bad for both the Castle and the Von Mekkhan family, because the Castle was severely damaged in the war and needed repairs, and minions without their Spark aren't really living a full life at all. Van grew up feeling a peculiar sort of emptiness, one he filled by people-watching and sticking his nose into everyone's business. When he was old enough to take over the job of Seneschal, he continued on doing the exact same thing. He'd park himself in a local coffee shop every day and drink gallons of the stuff to keep himself awake, while information from every corner of the town poured in. Without even leaving his booth he could learn secrets about what was going on half a continent away and make changes to the administration of Mechanicsburg accordingly.
This changed when his grandfather Carson brought in a new Heterodyne heir. Surprisingly, this one was female, and within half an hour in his coffee shop she'd completely rebuilt his coffee engine and got even the most stubborn of Mechanicsburg citizens to bring her tools and play Igor. She also displayed the signature Heterodyne humming, a trick the Heterodyne Sparks used to keep their minds clear and help them work. Van and Carson snuck her into the Castle, where she proved her claim and was eventually able to get the Doom Bell to ring, signifying that a Heterodyne was once again in residence. She took Van as her Seneschal and in current canon, the two of them and various allies are working to repel several invasion attempts at once.
Background (AU!Canon; HP): Pooting. Vanamonde was born in Mechanicsburg, Germany, a small town much like Little Hangleton. Though not a purely-wizarding town, Mechanicsburg boasted three wizarding families: the monied and eccentric Heterodynes who lived in the huge manor on the hill just outside of town, the Von Mekkhans who managed their estate and affairs (and a local coffee shop), and the fun-loving Jaegers who ran the best local bar. All three families were thick as thieves for generations going back into antiquity: the Heterodynes and Jaegers often went off on long, extended trips and the Von Mekkhans would take care of things for them until they returned.
Van was raised by his mother and his grandfather Carson after his father died from a terrible case of dragonpox. He spent almost as much time in the Heterodyne Manor as he did in his family's own small house in town, and easily became fast friends with Bill Heterodyne's daughter Agatha, who was his age. When not with her or the Jaeger children, he would help mind the coffee-shop and use it as an excuse to people-watch. He always knew the latest gossip and was always up to his eyeballs in the goings-on of the townspeople in general.
As he grew older, his grandfather more and more included him in helping to manage coffee-shop and the Heterodyne affairs, including grounds and money and whatever else the eccentric and rather scatterbrained brothers couldn't be depended on to do on their own. He helped head off more than one breach of the Statute of Secrecy, much to his grandfather's relief (dealing with the Ministry was also something neither the Heterodynes or their Jaeger friends weren't terribly good at).
He went to Hogwarts at age eleven, with the stated intention of taking over his grandfather's job both at the coffee shop and with the Heterodynes when he graduated, and now here he is in his fifth year. He's blossomed with more wizarding children around than just his five childhood friends (Agatha and the four Jaeger children), and has also grown into his own person a little more, even changing his hair color for a bit of individuality. Still, his heart belongs first and foremost to his family and Mechanicsburg, and he's excited to go back permanently once his schooling is over. He's a hard-working, rule-abiding student who excels mainly at History of Magic, Muggle Studies, Charms and Potions, and with a good background especially in the latter two he has some great ideas for revitalizing the family shop. Dragon.
How would your character fit in to each House?
Gryffindor: A possible fit, but not he best. Van is brave when he needs to be (in canon, he remained calm and collected while in a standoff with a crazed lunatic brandishing a knife, and deals constantly with dangerous madmen and/or monsters even if he likes most of them), but he's not a leader except by necessity. While he can take charge and delegate like nobody's business, he doesn't do so with the seat-of-the-pants bravado that many Gryffindors do, preferring to run things quietly and without fuss from behind the scenes. As for chivalry... Van is polite to everyone until they give him a reason to be otherwise, and that's about it. He demonstrates the Gryffindor nerve in that he sometimes speaks his mind (honesty is the best policy) even when it may get him trouble.
Hufflepuff: Probably the best fit. This house most exemplifies Vanamonde's core qualities. It is the house of the loyal, the hard-working, the person who does not necessarily want to be in the spotlight and is content to be a pillar to their friends. While he can be a fierce honey badger when he needs to, perhaps more than the stereotypical Hufflepuff, he generally prefers to stay back unless those he is closest and most loyal to are threatened. He is happiest when he has a job to do, and will take that job very seriously and complete it to the very best of his ability, even to the point of horribly overworking himself. This may include being in charge, something Hufflepuffs aren't usually known for doing, but Van is nothing if not truly dedicated. He's also quite tolerant, having been raised in a mostly-muggle town with a muggle mother. He respects and likes a whole group of people many wizards misunderstand or actively dislike.
Ravenclaw: Probably the worst fit. While Vanamonde is well-read, he isn't the type to love knowledge simply for knowledge's sake. He is more interested in routine and familiarity than innovation and the new, and while he can often be wry and witty, he isn't terribly creative except in his very narrow areas of interest (in canon, he wrote a book all about coffee under a pseudonym). He's far more about street smarts than book smarts.
Slytherin: Possible, but not likely. While Vanamonde values tradition and certainly has ambition (to take over his grandfather's job, one day), that ambition does not rule his life and he knows that tradition can become outmoded and need to be changed eventually. He does display a more Slytherin style of leadership when he is forced to take that role: in canon, he ran a town in secret for several years out of a coffee shop through a beautifully-constructed information network. However, he didn't do so because he wanted power, but because it was his duty as a Von Mekkhan and there was no one else for the job.
RP Samples:
Is anyone interested in a study partner for the upcoming History of Magic test? I know I personally find studying with a friend or two out by the lake quite preferable to holing up alone in the library, and it's much easier to memorize dates with someone else there to quiz you. Do please tell me if you want in on this; it will influence the amount of gingersnaps I bring.
Sample Post
Name: Inkwell
Timezone: PST in summer, EST during school year
Personal Journal:
misterporcelainPlayers Contact/AIM/MSN/YAHOO: AIM: misterporcelain; plurk:
Email Address: misterporcelain at gmail dot com
Former/Other Characters in the RP: n/a
How did you hear about us?: Lynny's plurk is what made me want to app, but I'd known about you for ages just through generally being in the dwrp scene.
Character Information
Name: Vanamonde Heliotrope Von Mekkhan
Canon Origin/Series: Girl Genius
School Year: 5th
Gender: Male
Age: 15
Out of school living location: Mechanicsburg, Germany
Blood status: Halfblood (deceased wizard father, muggle mother)
Personality: I'll be using both canon and HPverse information for this, so apologies in advance if it gets confusing. You may want to read the background sections first, since personality is built on those.
In a nutshell, Vanamonde is an intensely loyal young man with a dedication to family tradition, a wry wit, and a strong work ethic. His loyalty especially is a very important part of his character: in canon, his family's loyalty to the Heterodynes is their entire being, and having one in residence in Mechanicsburg literally fills a hole in their lives. Van is so loyal to his Heterodyne, Agatha, that he literally cannot imagine her failing despite her being up against several armies all at once, and he's willing to put his life on the line for her. He also faces down a man holding a knife to his assistant's throat and who just assaulted his mother, putting their safety above his own.
In HPverse that translates to a fierce love of his friends and family. He'll get downright dangerous if those people are threatened, and will take their side no matter what that entails, and even if he disagrees with what they're doing (in canon, the Heterodynes did some Very Questionable Things and the Von Mekkhans usually deferred to their decisions). However, he will speak up about his feelings on the matter, because he takes his role as adviser very seriously and believes that being honest is better than staying quiet.
This is another thing about Van. If given a job, he'll pour himself into it with 100% seriousness. I hardly have to mention how this manifests in canon, but in HPverse it applies to his work at the coffee shop, his work taking care of the Heterodynes, his schoolwork and even just doing favors for his friends like watching their owl for a few days. He has a huge attention to detail and is something of a perfectionist, and so doing a less-than-stellar job at anything is something he doesn't want to contemplate. He's a coffee addict because it keeps him awake and functioning, and he does have a bit of an issue with overworking himself and putting his own health below completing a task he's been assigned. In canon, he didn't sleep for days during the initial invasion of Mechanicsburg in order to better be able to coordinate then resistance and keep the townspeople safe.
He isn't just a boring, all-work-and-no-play boy, though. Van has quite a wit on him and often lightens the tone of a tense conversation with a well-timed wry observation. He's well-spoken and quite enjoys conversation, especially because he's an avid people-watcher and tends to pick up gossip easily, meaning that he always has something to talk about. Though his group of truly close friends is small, he always has a kind word for everyone and is generally polite until someone proves themselves to be not worth the effort. He's even a bit of a flirt, though usually only with those he knows won't be bothered by it. While romance is hardly his first priority, he does have a few romance novels tucked into his trunk along with his schoolbooks.
Van is also a dandy. His attention to detail and natural organization means that he's well-dressed and well-groomed at all times, and he has a certain stylistic flair that, while not flamboyant, marks him apart in terms of dress. He dyes part of his hair blond because he likes the way it looks and it's a way to set himself apart, but also still within the Hogwarts rules of having only 'natural' hair color. His clothing when not in school uniform is often a mix of muggle and wizarding clothes thanks to his halfblood heritage, and he very much enjoys more 'dressy' clothes like pinstriped trousers and vests, often in bright wizarding sorts of colors like purple and teal. He believes in always putting his best foot forward in terms of visual presentation as much as work ethic.
Canon Background: Vanamonde's world is an alternate-history, branching off in the early 1800s. The most notable difference is the presence of Sparks, humans with a particular affinity for the sciences. A Spark has access to a part of their brain called the Madness Place that a normal human does not, enabling them to make amazing inventions in minutes out of nothing but twine and pliars. Unfortunately, accessing the Madness Place results in. Uh. Madness. Most Sparks for this reason are feared and respected, especially because most of them tend to be in positions of power. They are domineering and charismatic people and very easily gather followers.
If you want to understand Vanamonde's history you need to have an understanding of the history of House Heterodyne. The Heterodynes are an extremely old and illustrious Spark family, one of the strongest in the known world. The house was founded in Mechanicsburg by a barbarian who recognized it for the exceptionally defensible place it was. It eventually grew into a large town with high walls and excellent defense systems, ruled by the Heterodynes up until twenty years prior to current canon.
As Sparks and strong Sparks at that, the Heterodynes were and are very charismatic. The town of Mechanicsburg is peopled almost entirely by minions, all of whom are fiercely loyal to the Heterodyne family and who would defend the city with their lives. I could link to pages and pages of the comic where this is evident ('My family were gravediggers to the Masters for generations, and I heard there's a new Master, so I dug up this rat because it's all I could find!' coming out of the mouth of a wee little child is pretty convincing, especially when you take into account that there hadn't been a Heterodyne in power since at least a decade before his birth) but that would clutter this section. The point is, everyone in Mechanicsburg is a minion to the Heterodynes, and Vanamonde comes from the family that is arguably full of the strongest minions of all. They serve as the Seneschals and have for generations, acting as chief advisers to the Heterodynes and helping to maintain order in the town.
When the Heterodynes went missing in the middle of the Other War twenty years prior to current canon, the Von Mekkhans never gave up hope that they would one day return to administrate the town. Van was only a baby at the time; he lost his father in the initial attack on Castle Heterodyne and was raised by his mother and grandfather. Carson Von Mekkhan adopted the name Heliotrope and carried on administrating the town in secret, even after Baron Wulfenbach (the new world power, who came in after the Other War and started consolidating Europe into one empire known as Europa Wulfenbach) appointed his own town council.
Heterodyne 'heirs' would show up every few months, attempting to reclaim the family birthright, and the Von Mekkhans would sent them all into Castle Heterodyne to be tested. Given that the Castle was sentient and required blood to perform this test, all of them were found to be pretenders and never came back out alive again. This was bad for both the Castle and the Von Mekkhan family, because the Castle was severely damaged in the war and needed repairs, and minions without their Spark aren't really living a full life at all. Van grew up feeling a peculiar sort of emptiness, one he filled by people-watching and sticking his nose into everyone's business. When he was old enough to take over the job of Seneschal, he continued on doing the exact same thing. He'd park himself in a local coffee shop every day and drink gallons of the stuff to keep himself awake, while information from every corner of the town poured in. Without even leaving his booth he could learn secrets about what was going on half a continent away and make changes to the administration of Mechanicsburg accordingly.
This changed when his grandfather Carson brought in a new Heterodyne heir. Surprisingly, this one was female, and within half an hour in his coffee shop she'd completely rebuilt his coffee engine and got even the most stubborn of Mechanicsburg citizens to bring her tools and play Igor. She also displayed the signature Heterodyne humming, a trick the Heterodyne Sparks used to keep their minds clear and help them work. Van and Carson snuck her into the Castle, where she proved her claim and was eventually able to get the Doom Bell to ring, signifying that a Heterodyne was once again in residence. She took Van as her Seneschal and in current canon, the two of them and various allies are working to repel several invasion attempts at once.
Background (AU!Canon; HP): Pooting. Vanamonde was born in Mechanicsburg, Germany, a small town much like Little Hangleton. Though not a purely-wizarding town, Mechanicsburg boasted three wizarding families: the monied and eccentric Heterodynes who lived in the huge manor on the hill just outside of town, the Von Mekkhans who managed their estate and affairs (and a local coffee shop), and the fun-loving Jaegers who ran the best local bar. All three families were thick as thieves for generations going back into antiquity: the Heterodynes and Jaegers often went off on long, extended trips and the Von Mekkhans would take care of things for them until they returned.
Van was raised by his mother and his grandfather Carson after his father died from a terrible case of dragonpox. He spent almost as much time in the Heterodyne Manor as he did in his family's own small house in town, and easily became fast friends with Bill Heterodyne's daughter Agatha, who was his age. When not with her or the Jaeger children, he would help mind the coffee-shop and use it as an excuse to people-watch. He always knew the latest gossip and was always up to his eyeballs in the goings-on of the townspeople in general.
As he grew older, his grandfather more and more included him in helping to manage coffee-shop and the Heterodyne affairs, including grounds and money and whatever else the eccentric and rather scatterbrained brothers couldn't be depended on to do on their own. He helped head off more than one breach of the Statute of Secrecy, much to his grandfather's relief (dealing with the Ministry was also something neither the Heterodynes or their Jaeger friends weren't terribly good at).
He went to Hogwarts at age eleven, with the stated intention of taking over his grandfather's job both at the coffee shop and with the Heterodynes when he graduated, and now here he is in his fifth year. He's blossomed with more wizarding children around than just his five childhood friends (Agatha and the four Jaeger children), and has also grown into his own person a little more, even changing his hair color for a bit of individuality. Still, his heart belongs first and foremost to his family and Mechanicsburg, and he's excited to go back permanently once his schooling is over. He's a hard-working, rule-abiding student who excels mainly at History of Magic, Muggle Studies, Charms and Potions, and with a good background especially in the latter two he has some great ideas for revitalizing the family shop. Dragon.
How would your character fit in to each House?
Gryffindor: A possible fit, but not he best. Van is brave when he needs to be (in canon, he remained calm and collected while in a standoff with a crazed lunatic brandishing a knife, and deals constantly with dangerous madmen and/or monsters even if he likes most of them), but he's not a leader except by necessity. While he can take charge and delegate like nobody's business, he doesn't do so with the seat-of-the-pants bravado that many Gryffindors do, preferring to run things quietly and without fuss from behind the scenes. As for chivalry... Van is polite to everyone until they give him a reason to be otherwise, and that's about it. He demonstrates the Gryffindor nerve in that he sometimes speaks his mind (honesty is the best policy) even when it may get him trouble.
Hufflepuff: Probably the best fit. This house most exemplifies Vanamonde's core qualities. It is the house of the loyal, the hard-working, the person who does not necessarily want to be in the spotlight and is content to be a pillar to their friends. While he can be a fierce honey badger when he needs to, perhaps more than the stereotypical Hufflepuff, he generally prefers to stay back unless those he is closest and most loyal to are threatened. He is happiest when he has a job to do, and will take that job very seriously and complete it to the very best of his ability, even to the point of horribly overworking himself. This may include being in charge, something Hufflepuffs aren't usually known for doing, but Van is nothing if not truly dedicated. He's also quite tolerant, having been raised in a mostly-muggle town with a muggle mother. He respects and likes a whole group of people many wizards misunderstand or actively dislike.
Ravenclaw: Probably the worst fit. While Vanamonde is well-read, he isn't the type to love knowledge simply for knowledge's sake. He is more interested in routine and familiarity than innovation and the new, and while he can often be wry and witty, he isn't terribly creative except in his very narrow areas of interest (in canon, he wrote a book all about coffee under a pseudonym). He's far more about street smarts than book smarts.
Slytherin: Possible, but not likely. While Vanamonde values tradition and certainly has ambition (to take over his grandfather's job, one day), that ambition does not rule his life and he knows that tradition can become outmoded and need to be changed eventually. He does display a more Slytherin style of leadership when he is forced to take that role: in canon, he ran a town in secret for several years out of a coffee shop through a beautifully-constructed information network. However, he didn't do so because he wanted power, but because it was his duty as a Von Mekkhan and there was no one else for the job.
RP Samples:
Is anyone interested in a study partner for the upcoming History of Magic test? I know I personally find studying with a friend or two out by the lake quite preferable to holing up alone in the library, and it's much easier to memorize dates with someone else there to quiz you. Do please tell me if you want in on this; it will influence the amount of gingersnaps I bring.
Sample Post