Your Nickname: Socks
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? Friend
If you have written other characters here: Yes
If Yes, list them all: Admete Brown
Aisling Knight
Cullodena Reid
Georgiana Trishna
Rowena Knight
Is this a Primary or Secondary Character?: Primary

Full Character Name: Malin Ann Thomas
Character Birthday & Age: April 27, 1972 (37)
City & Country of Birth: Green Bay, Wisconsin, United States
Blood Purity: Halfblood
Alma Mater: Salem Witches' Institute
Job/Position: Ritual Magic Professor

Wand: Cherry wood, hair from the mane of a kelpie core, 10 inches, supple and knobby.

Physical Description:
Large, deep brown eyes, an oval face, curly brown hair that falls just below her shoulders. Her skin is a shade of medium brown, and her both her build and her height of 5'3" could be considered somewhat average.

Malin's not the sort of woman to take up a lot of space, though she never quite melts into the background either. It's her hands that are the most expressive, often gesturing to emphasize a point or to make one.

Her work keeps her active, but she doesn't tend to pursue much exercise beyond it. Enough to keep her fit, but not quite trim. She tends to favor loose clothing in Salem colors of purple, black, and silver while at work.

Personality Description:
Malin is pretty laid back, generally uninterested in office politics, tradition for tradition's sake, or schedules, often considering them superficial distractions from real work and inquiry. Her thoughts and conversations tend to meander into lengthy tangents, and she often uses copious amounts of coffee to keep up her flagging concentration.

Unsurpringly, she doesn't tend to be particularly neat, organized, or timely, though she's gotten better over the years. At this point, she's much more of the teacher who digs through the piles on her desk for a while before finding the relevant paper, rather than the one who might lose it completely. 

In general, she's a bit warm, the sort to keep her office door open and a pot of coffee always about. This means there's usually a student or another teacher there, checking up about an assignment or just distracting her from that eternal resolution of getting organized.

She also has a habit of collecting the sports sections of newspapers, especially in relation to her passion for American football. And for snacks for said football. She's also quite fond of knitting. It's something to keep her hands busy, after all.

History:
Born to a pair of half-blood wizards who ran an small shop selling a selection of magical items out of their house, Malin was the youngest child, her brother David being seven years older. Much of her youth involved helping around the shop in whatever fashion she could, and alternating between rolling her eyes at customers and listening to them in fascination.

Her time at Salem was most notable for Malin asking awkward questions, approaching her classes in ways other than how she had been told to so, and being a bit of an irritant, particularly for the stricter teachers. She still did decently in most of her classes, worst in some of the more regimented subjects. Herbs, were, despite everything, something she seemed to have a talent for, and in her later years at school she was even able to tutor some other students in the subject.

This led her to the decision to take on additional schooling after graduation, though her classes at Lavenstrome's Fundunct of Sorcery  began to frustrate her quite quickly. Something which made teaching not sound quite as appealing as a career at that time.

While on break over Christmas, and thus recruited into helping at her parent's shop, one of the customers mentioned an expedition to Peru happening over the next summer and intended to study Inca techniques of herbology and healing. Malin, with her frustrations at her further schooling, found the idea of this to be the perfect distraction-and the anticipation allowed her to buckle down on her current training.

She came away from the expedition with a few adventure stories, two small scars, and a particular interest in the subject of ritualistic approaches to magic that either predated the use of wands, or simply didn't utilize them. This led to several more similar trips to varying portions of the world over the next few years. At first they were smaller and more scattered because of the demands of her schooling, but after that was completed in 1994, she went on some larger expeditions before turning her attention more strictly to hunting for a more stable job. Many of these expeditions returned her to South America, and Malin chose to study multiple cultures within the area, rather than focusing on just one. Divination techniques were a particular area of ritual she studied within this time, though not the only one. 

It was on one of these trips that she met her now-girlfriend, Nadira, a healer with the expedition. At first they didn't pay each other much mind, but after a couple months together they hit it off. While the relationship was rather sporadic at first, it's become more solid over recent years.

The job search at this time resulted not in a position, but in occasionally teaching at seminars on Divination, healing, or the occasional one on the wandless rituals she had studied. Sometimes she'd also serve as a substitute for the occasional missing teacher. She also published a few scholarly articles on the subjects during this time, and the ones on wandless rituals brought her a bit of fame, if only in some very specialized circles. These pursuits brought in a little money, and also gave Malin opportunities to develop new contacts and establish her name and expertise. Eventually the substitution involved her teaching a divination lesson at Salem, and after a few inquiries, she also ran a seminar on historical wandless magic at the school. The interest prompted by the seminar led to her being offered a small position teaching the subject at Salem, starting during the 2006-2007 school year.

She's been teaching there ever since. At first the structure was a bit difficult to adjust to, but currently Malin simply chooses to be grateful that her subject is an elective for the older students of Salem senior, rather than a required class.

With the Tournament, she was chosen to attend because her field displays the breadth of Salem's instruction. That she also teaches only older students, more of whom would be attending, along her class being an elective as well, also made her leaving for the Tournament for a year less impactful to the school's general functioning.

Describe your job duties and how you go about them:
Malin teaches an elective class for older students. While it incorporates aspects of magical history, herbs, runes, divination, and smatterings of other subjects, its primary focus is studying the magical rituals and techniques of cultures which either pre-date or do not utilize wands. Students usually come into the class with a strong background in at least Herbology and Divination. Because the topic is an elective offered to older students, it tends to allow for quite a bit of flexibility in terms of what sort of cultures and rituals they wish to study, along with how to approach such studies.

Malin tends to encourage such flexibility, and her classes tend more towards projects explored individually or through small groups with her gently directing uncertain students. Her favorite aspect of this work is when students manage to find their niche of the subject to enjoy, pursue, and apply to their general understanding of magic. While the class doesn't directly teach what might be traditionally deemed wandless casting (focusing instead on lengthy rituals to produce effects), a certain correlation between such teaching and an increased ability for wandless casting has been noticed-something which has attracted the attention of some students interested in careers such as law enforcement.

Elaborate on your expertise in your field:
Along with completing additional schooling for a teaching degree, Malin has also involved herself in numerous expeditions throughout the globe relating to the various rituals and cultures she instructs students in. While most of these focused on the area of South America, she visited numerous other areas as well over a period spanning almost two decades.

Before coming to teach at Salem she also spent about a decade engaged in teaching in a substitute role or through running seminars, along with publishing several scholarly articles-some of which gained a certain renown. It was her solid performance while teaching in a temporary capacity at Salem, along with some particular interest in her seminar there that truly netted her the position, however.

Writing Sample:
N/A

Sum up your character in one paragraph:
A relatively laid back sort, Malin enjoys seeing her students discover their own areas of interest within her classes. Her explorations and studies have given her a deep appreciation for magical techniques which use methods of focus other than wands. Now if only she was a bit better at being organized.