Your Nickname: Kelly
Have you read and do you agree to the Code of Conduct?: Yes
Are you over thirteen? Yes
How did you find us and decide to write with us? RPG Directory
If you have written other characters here: No
If Yes, list them all:
Is this a Primary or Secondary Character?: Primary




Wand:
Length: 10 1/4 inches long
Wood: Rowan, stained purple
Core: Pheonix Feather
The shaft is a spiraled one, of supple wood.

This is her second wand-- her first was a cherry wand,  9 inches, with a dragon heartstring. It was rigid and knobby. It was broken.

Physical Description:
Maiko’s hair is dark brown, and extremely wavy, with a bit of curl to it. It is normally pulled back into a messy bun or a braid. However, she often straightens it, especially if it is down.  Her complexion is of a tan, olive one-- her light brown eyes are sometimes altered to look green or hazel with transfiguration. Her face is round, and from the side it can look a little bit flat, a fact that she is a little self conscious about... Despite her amazing cheekbones.

Because she wants to delude herself into thinking she's a professional, she feels the need to dress the part at work. Generally, she will wear a black suit-skirt that goes to her knees, grey tights, and comfortable black shoes. Her shirt is usually any shade of purple from lavender to eggplant, or some form of off-white. Usually, her shirt is tucked into her skirt. Over her clothes, she wears simple black robes. Outside of work she dresses casually in cute dresses or leggings with a shirt.

Mai has a short torso in proportion to the rest of her body, making her legs look longer. At 5'0, she often rounds up to 5'1. She is petite, finding it difficult to keep weight (and curves!) on consistently. She keeps an active lifestyle though, and is physically stronger than she looks. She has scars on her back and knees, and her fair share of piercings. The nose one is normally charmed to be invisible while she's working or at Hogwarts.


Personality Description:
 She is a very outgoing, social person-- extremely kind-hearted. She is assertive, though sometimes she gets aggressive when particularly annoyed or threatened. Generally, she is fairly patient. As a very good listener, Mai loves to help people when they come to her with questions. She is a genuinely happy person, and it is no façade. Maiko wears her heart on her sleeve. If she is feeling down, she will talk about her feelings to just about anyone who is around.

Mai has the amazing ability to ramble for what can feel like hours on end. She is a very, very loyal person, if there was somebody she cared about, there would be no doubt that she would risk her life for them. She has a thorough understanding of who she is, and also recognizes that as a human being, she is constantly changing. To her, change is a type of healthy growth that all human beings go through.

Mai can get easily distracted, so it is a blessing that she is not a teacher. After all, it would be easy for students to get her off task. Mai cares about the people around her, even if she doesn’t particularly like them. She still cares. She also tries to make sure that people feel included and well-liked, even though they may not be well liked any anybody (including herself.)

Unfortunately, Maiko is stubborn to a fault. This can lead her to be rather close minded to any ideas that do not support her own. After some persuasion, she can be convinced.

Maiko also does not have a very good brain-to-mouth filter in casual situations. When frustrated, she will not hesitate to curse. This also leads her to speak rather bluntly, and this can insult people from time to time. If feelings are hurt, she will give that person a genuine apology, if she realizes that feelings were hurt.

She is fluent in English, French, and is passable in Japanese. She speaks all with a very slight French accent.
History:

 Maiko was born to a Japanese father and a French mother in Châteaurenard, France. When she was 7ish years old, her family moved to Limerick, Ireland to be closer to her maternal grandparents, and because there was a farming opportunity for her father. Her parents were not very wealthy, though her mother's parents were rich. They provided her family with funding for ballet lessons and other private schooling until she was accepted at Hogwarts-- for that she feels very privileged. Her mother was a Psychologist, and her father was a farmer.  As she was growing up, her parents noticed some strange behaviors-- most of them involved Maiko seeming to know that things were going to happen, before they happened. They attributed that to her being highly intuitive, and did not suspect anything else.

She got her Hogwarts Acceptance Letter when she was 11 years of age.  Her parents were excited, and proud of her. She was in the Hufflepuff house while she attended Hogwarts. Every summer, she would resume ballet lessons and work on her schoolwork. Occasionally, she would invite a couple friends from school to stay for a month in the summer. During that time, it was discovered that she had a younger half brother (from her father), that was conceived when her parents were separated for a short period of time.  He is 7 years younger than her.

When she was thirteen years old, she was diagnosed with Lupus, an autoimmune disease where the body attacks itself. With wizarding medicine, her disease is kept under control. Only when she had been under a great deal of stress for an extended period of time or has forgotten to take her medicine will she show symptoms. Unfortunately, her mother died of Lupus-related complications only a year before Maiko herself was diagnosed (there was an issue with her medications). A year later, her father passed away. She lived with her Uncle Auguste in the summer until her 5th year of Hogwarts, when her Grandparents realized that Auguste was abusive to his children, and to Maiko. During the time she lived with her uncle and cousins, she was severely depressed. She and her cousins went to live with her grandparents in her sixth and seventh year. As a result of the war, she does have scars on her back. They cannot be removed, as they were caused by a curse.

During school, she was proficient in Divinination (she was a seer), Charms, and Potions. Her weak spots were Transfiguration and Arithmancy.  When it came to all other subjects, she was mundanely average. Maiko also cannot fly a broomstick to save her life.

In 1997, she was 14 years old and in her fourth year at Hogwarts. The ministry had fallen to Voldemort, and she attempted to forge her family tree in order to stay at Hogwarts. It worked, only for a short time. She was eventually found out and went into hiding til Voldemort was defeated-- being captured and escaping several times.

After graduating from Hogwarts, she worked at St. Mungos as a trainee healer for a short time. It was then that she realized that she was more interested in the psychology of the people who were patients. She quit her work at St. Mungos and worked through school as a part time dance instructor in the wizarding world.  She simultaneously worked to get a psychology degree in the muggle world. Over time, she worked her way into a Counseling position, but it was very much magic-based, and she did not do psychology as much as she would have liked. It was an entry level job. She completed her doctorate in psychology in the summer before she got her job at Hogwarts.

When she was 19 years of age, she became the legal guardian of her younger half brother, Kohaku. Kohaku is a legal adult now, by muggle standards-- and is studying biology. Kohaku is also a muggle. He wants to become a doctor, specializing in blood diseases and cancer. This is inspired by the leukemia he had when he was ten years old, and is tested for each year, to make sure it hasn't come back. Until she began working as a counselor, she taught at a dance studio for several years.

Notes: Her grandparents live in Ireland, though they also have a home in France.

Currently: She is living with her brother in London, sharing a rented house. She now has a fluffy dog named Maslow (very nearly named Pavlov). She is currently working through the newfound bit of information that her dad was a wizard, which would have made her a halfblood instead of a muggleborn.

Describe your job duties and how you go about them:
Her job is to assess which students are at a high risk of dropping out, bullying, or suicide. She also helps students choose courses that will affect their later careers. Sometimes, she will help with conflict-resolution, and perhaps substance-abuse intervention. She is trained to carry out psychological and psychoeducational assessments on students. She is good with potions, so she generally has some calming remedies in her office. She seems to mostly deal with conflict resolution, and career management.  In the future, she would love to have some sort of teaching job except Divination. She feels like Divination is only useful if you are a seer.


Elaborate on your expertise in your field:
She attended a muggle university, and acquired her psy.d in 2010. She learned how to provide counseling to those people, though it was often very difficult. She also learned how to assess suicide risk in those individuals with a combination of general risk factors, and even minor prophecies. She acknowledges that muggle science is suspicious in the wizarding world, and tries to work on magical solutions as well.

NEWTS:
Potions, Transfiguration, Herbology, Charms, and Defence Against the Dark Arts, Divination
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Sum up your character in one paragraph: Maiko is a 28 year old counselor with experience in psychology. She is of a French-Japanese heritage, and was in the Hufflepuff house when she attended Hogwarts. Maiko is also a seer, though her powers do not manifest very often. When they do, she tries to focus them more on people she knows, rather than on the future of the world. She is an enthusiastic, laid back, yet incredibly stubborn person who wears her heart on her sleeve. [/center]

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Special Ability

 
Special Ability: Seer

What level is this ability at?: Master

At what age did your character gain this ability?: She started showing signs when she was about 4 years old.

How did they learn or hone this ability?:
She learned she had the ability a few months after entering Hogwarts. At the time, it was extremely weak, and poorly controlled. As she got older, she was able to learn by writing letters to other seers, communicating with the divination teacher, and lots of practice. However, her power grew more during her later years at Hogwarts. As she got older, her ability advanced as she learned to focus her power on more personal subjects, rather than on general, vague happenings. 

Describe how the Special Ability influences their life.  What do they use it for?:
Her ability manifests itself in a strong intuition. She does not usually use it intentionally.  In general, Maiko uses her powers as a preventative measure. Sometimes, she does use it for other reasons, though those reasons are very scarce.  There are moments where she cannot control when she sees things, and sometimes it happens in her sleep. Sometimes, she gets extremely paranoid and anxious when she forsees something detrimental to those around her, and goes out of her way to try to prevent these things from happening. She has shown proficiency with scrying (when she helped Adon Eleor find his brother, Dreogan), and is a natural when it comes to reflective surfaces in divination rather than cards.

Write a description of what happens when your character is exhibiting this Special Ability: When Maiko has a premonition, she is not consciously aware of her surroundings, though she may react to others on a subconscious level. She stares off into space. Sometimes, she can write down the premonition while she is having it, but only whenshe is already writing in the first place.

Others may view her has having some form of epilepsy if they do not know her. The effects that her powers have on others really depends on whether or not they were involved in her premonitions. Maiko will not speak of serious premonitions without first consulting her boss at her place of employment to assess the situation.

If she has a large amount of premonitions, or a particularly long and/or frightening one, she has a tendency to get migraines that can last a full day.

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Special Title Request
Character Name: Maiko Biladeau-Yukawa
Title Applying For: Head of Hufflepuff
Character Biography: Here ya go you filthy animal _{(andhaveahappynewyear)}

What Experience has Prepared You For This Honor?:
Maiko has been the school counselor for a year now; she is well acquainted with the staff that have stuck around, she is a familiar and friendly face to students. She was one of the few staff members who were chosen to (and were willing to) chaperone Hogwart's Southeast Asia 2010 summer trip. She has kept a cool head under the threat of disaster. She is easily approachable, though she is no-nonsense and commands respect when she needs to.

She has a good relationship with her fellow staff members as well as her students. Sometimes she has her off days where she simply does not feel great, but so far it has not affected the quality of her job performance. She have proven herself to be a a reliable, consistent, dependable addition to the Hogwarts Staff.

What Do You Think the Most Important Aspect of This Job Is:?
Maiko believes that the most important aspect of this job is trust. The students need to trust her, she needs to have a rapport with the Hufflepuffs in general. Not only that, but she needs to have a strong relationship with the rest of her staff, so that they can collaborate if and when disaster occurs in the house that included intervention from other staff members. She also believes that being available and open to helping out her house (and all other students as well) is just as important.

Tell a Story From Your Past That Has Proven Your Mettle: 
Nobody Needs to Know --Counseling Jordyn

“There’s more to you than that.” Though her voice was gentle, there was a certainty to her tone. “Most things are never a clear-cut right or wrong, good or evil. The world is full of grey areas. People are more complicated than that Mai cleared her throat.

“You say it wasn’t a mistake. Just because it was unexpected, just because you feel like you didn’t know him well, doesn’t mean it was wrong. It’ll only define you as much as you allow it to.”

Seers, Prophecies, & Visions --Being  a seer mentor to Winnie

“Honestly?” Mai leaned forward, “ You’ll get used to the dreams. They’ll become… Normal to you.” Then it was onto the papers. “You may or may not start doing that. It really depends on the person—every seer has a different trigger, and mine just happened to be writing. When that happens... I just have to start over. It’s frustrating and ridiculous.”  Merlin, this girl had eight million questions and then some. It was difficult for Mai to keep up with it!

“It is completely up to you whether or not you report the vision to the ministry.” Maiko said, “I don’t report a lot of the little things—but if it’s something big, I do. There’s no rules about trying to change the future, but it’s difficult to tell if any actions you take will actually change things. The future is… Annoying that way. Also, just because you have a vision about something doesn’t mean it absolutely will happen—it just means that the current choices you, or the person involved are making, will lead them down that path. The future is as fickle and changing as us people are.”

The counselor smiled, “You’ll get used to the idea of being a seer, it’ll be strange and new at first, but it’ll become just another part of you. You do not have to register with the ministry. As far as harnessing it, it simply takes practice and time. Limit your stress. There’s not much you can do until you yourself have gotten more practice. You do not get an automatic O in divination, you still have to do your homework and go to class.”

The Good Times are Killing Me -- Counseling Jai Patil

"Sometimes, to get where you want to be, you have to jump through hoops, and go a route that you didn't think about, or particularly want to do. The right route for someone else may not be the right one for you, and sometimes it takes some trial and error to figure out where to go. And that's okay."

She gave him a warm smile, "You have options, Jai. Youhave potential. You're clever, but you have a tendency to... Psych yourself out.  You're focused on the what-ifs. Instead, try focusing on the now-- focus on doing."

Planning for the Future -- Career counseling with Verity, this whole thread is brief but concise.

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Astrological Chart

Name: Maiko Biladeau-Yukawa
June 22 1982
3:00 AM Time Zone is CEDT
Chateaurenard, FR

Rising Sign   is in   05 Degrees   Taurus
Calm and deliberate, you hate to move quickly or act hastily. Very practical, every effort must count or you can't be bothered. Patient, persistent and steady, but very stubborn -- you can't be pushed or pressured into anything. You seem outwardly self-assured because you tend to repress your inner tension and turmoil. You exude an earthy warmth, friendliness and charm. You demand comfortable surroundings and appreciate the good life. Be careful of a tendency to be overly self-indulgent. At times, you are lazy and difficult to motivate. Overcoming inertia is a problem for you and, because you are not by nature a self-starter, it is often necessary for you to receive stimuli from others in order to get moving.

Sun is in   00 Degrees   Cancer.
Very emotional and sensitive, you have an intuitive understanding of the "vibes" around you. You tend to be quite generous, giving, loving and caring, but only when your own needs for emotional support, love and security have been met. If they are not met, you tend to withdraw into yourself and become very insecure and selfish. Your home and family (especially your mother or the person who played that role for you early on) represent security for you and thus assume a larger-than-life importance. Very sentimental, you have vivid and long- enduring memories of the past. No matter how well adjusted you are, you will always need a secret quiet place of your own in order to feel at peace. Feeding others can give you great pleasure you would enjoy being part of a large family.

Moon is in   08 Degrees   Cancer.
For the most part, you are very strong and secure emotionally. You intuitively know what to do to make others feel comfortable, loved, accepted and needed. You naturally enjoy feeding and taking care of others. Be careful that your mothering does not turn into smothering. At times, you tend to feel that those to whom you are attached can never do anything without your assistance and support. Extremely sensitive by nature, it hurts you deeply whenever anyone criticizes you. You have an almost desperate need to be loved and wanted and needed by everyone with whom you come into contact, and you go out of your way to be accommodating to them.

Mercury is in   09 Degrees   Gemini.
Your mind is active, quick and agile. You are very restless and you get bored easily. Unless you receive constant mental stimulation, you become extremely nervous and begin to act in an unstable manner. You are probably a good student because of your natural inquisitiveness. You also love to travel. Your learning tends to be superficial, though, because you have a relatively short attention span. Try to develop the mental discipline to finish what you start. Also, you tend to talk on at times seemingly just to fill space -- make sure that your conversation has some substance to it or others will start avoiding you.

Venus is in   25 Degrees   Taurus.
You are known to be a warm and affectionate person, and you tend to form long- lasting attachments. The reverse of this is that you can also be quite possessive once you have made a commitment. The beauty, luxury and comfort of your surroundings are important to you and you will devote much time and energy to making your home just right. Beware of your tendency toward self-indulgence, especially with respect to eating incorrectly. You also need outside stimuli to get you in gear When things come too easily for you, you can be lazy and indolent.

Mars is in   09 Degrees   Libra.
You are very aware of the need to cooperate with others in order to further any effort. You are usually willing to compromise with others, although you can be quite competitive in a friendly way. Very fair- minded and impartial, you have the ability to sense injustice and the desire to take corrective actions to make proper compensations. You see both sides of issues and questions, but you tend to be undecided or wavering when forced to make choices that might make you vulnerable or unpopular.

Jupiter is in   00 Degrees   Scorpio.
You love to dig deep beneath surface appearances in order to find out what is really happening. A persistent researcher, you are very interested in the psychology of any situation. You tend to become overwhelmed by the complexity of what you uncover, however, and that makes you a bit gun-shy about explaining things to others. But you must learn to try to communicate as best you can because what you know is really very valuable to others.

Saturn is in   15 Degrees   Libra.
Although you take quite a while to make decisions, you usually consider all sides to a question, all the pros and cons, and the solution you come up with is very often the correct one. You tend to be very reserved and shy, but, once you make a commitment to someone (in either a business or personal relationship), the partnership is forever. You have a strong sense of justice and fair play and greatly respect the laws and institutions by which you are governed. As such, you are outraged when others break laws or show contempt for authority.

Uranus is in   01 Degrees   Sagittarius.
You, and most of your peers, have the tendency to think that all ideas, customs and traditions from the past are outmoded and irrelevant. You are attracted to radically new ideas, philosophies and religions that will, hopefully, cause sweeping changes throughout the world.

Neptune is in   25 Degrees   Sagittarius.
You, and your entire generation, are heavily involved in investigating and idealizing foreign and exotic intellectual systems and religious philosophies. The most extreme ideals will be pursued with gusto. You will be at the forefront of humanitarian attempts to improve the lot of those who are in need of assistance. You will be comfortable with the concept of the "global village."

Pluto is in   24 Degrees   Libra.
For your entire generation, this is a time of radical changes in society's attitude toward marriage and interpersonal relationships. There is a general fear and awe at the power inherent in making emotional or contractual commitments -- they will not be entered into lightly.

N. Node is in   13 Degrees   Cancer.
You genuinely enjoy meeting other people, but you're at your best if you can do so from the comfort of your own home. You prefer others to come to you and tend to feel uncomfortable about leaving your home or neighborhood for any extended period of time. Those who do come in contact with you are struck by your caring and obliging nature -- you really make them feel at home. You form the closest ties, however, with members of your immediate family, especially your parents and children. You're at your best attending or organizing family reunions!