Your Nickname: Gemini
Have you read and do you agree to the Code of Conduct?: Yes
How did you find us and decide to write with us? RPG Directory
If you have written other characters here: Yes
If Yes, list them all: Alvis Norling, Darius Gabor, Eha Farro, Orianne Traverse
Is this a Primary or Secondary Character?: Primary
Full Character Name: Taryn Alice Dickenson
Character Birthday & Age: October 17th, 1992 (16 years old)
City & Country of Birth: Enchanted Oaks, Texas, United States of America
Pureblood, Halfblood or Muggleborn: Halfblood
House & Year: Salem | Junior | Cliodne Hall
Wand: Eighteen inches, sycamore and dragon heartstring, slightly springy.
An extra-long wand for an extra-tall witch, its core comes from a powerful Peruvian Vipertooth, and it – like Taryn – craves adventure and excitement.
Physical Description:
Taryn is half-giant on her father’s side, and therefore, the first thing that anyone notices about her is that she is extremely tall. At sixteen years old, she stands a full eight feet, two inches tall, believed to be her full adult height as she has not grown in three years. The rest of her frame is equally large, with shoulders twice the width of most other women, though she is not overweight. Mostly, she appears stretched, with a long torso and gangly limbs.
Taryn’s hair is naturally dirty-blonde, but she bleaches it a more pure blonde. It’s straight and just a little past shoulder length, normally pulled out of her eyes into a ponytail but sometimes worn down with a thick headband for fancy events. Her eyes are bright blue.
Because of her height, Taryn can’t be too picky about the way that she dresses. She has a few nice sets of clothes that are tailor-made for her, but most of her wardrobe has been modified by her own hand to fit. As such, she prefers cheap t-shirts and jeans in bright colors, though her favorite accessory is the brown fighter pilot’s jacket her stepfather gave her for her thirteenth birthday. Her shoes – size 21 women’s basketball sneaks – are also custom-made.
Personality Description:
Some would consider it a bad pun to say that Taryn has a big heart, but that’s really the best way to describe her – she is loving, outgoing, friendly, and above all else, adventurous. If you ever need someone to help out with a prank raid, swiping food from the kitchens, or venturing into a dangerous situation, Taryn is your girl. She thrives on new experiences and adrenaline, and is one of the most reliable witches in Salem. Though you probably don’t want her along for stealth missions – she’s quite clumsy, thanks to her size.
Due to her unusual parentage, Taryn is particularly good at playing basketball, which she does with gusto while at Salem because she knows that going into the Muggle leagues would be asking for trouble. She loves the fun of completion and readily indulges in as many recreational sports as she is allowed, though basketball is her only official school team and first love. At this point, even though she’s only a junior, she’s star of the varsity team. In addition, she sings in the choir – she has a strong and very clear voice that would be suitable for opera with the proper training.
Having grown up half in the Muggle world, Taryn is acutely aware of how much she doesn't fit in - both physically and mentally. Because of this, she values her life at Salem and the friends she's made there, who are willing to overlook her odd parentage and treat her like she belongs. It's also given her a bit of a complex about exceptionalism, and she longs to stand out in a crowd for reasons that aren't her height, which is part of the reason she loves being a basketball star and works extra-hard to earn solos in choir.
While she can always be counted on the come to the rescue of anyone in a dangerous situation – including pulling cats out of trees – she can also be overly-eager and borderline reckless which, at times, can be very dangerous. In addition to her height, being half-giant has made her unusually strong and, though she has spent her entire life learning to control this, she still breaks furniture on occasion and sometimes even hurts other people, which weighs heavily on her conscious. Suffice it to say, making her angry is taking your life into your own hands.
Oddly, Taryn is afraid of heights. If asked about it, she’ll explain that it’s not the height that scares her so much as it is the notion of a fall, which is understandable, given how painful even tripping while walking can be if you’re as tall and as heavy as she is. This is also the source of her hatred for ceiling fans.
Like most half-giants, Taryn has a particular affinity for large magical beasts. The thing she misses most while at school is her pet Newfoundland, Antonia, whom she treats like a lapdog much to the consternation of her stepfather. Care of Magical Creatures is easily her best subject. In addition, Taryn often participates in rodeos in her home state of Texas, where she’s proven adept at roping and subduing wild creatures, including a memorable grand prize at the Southern Wizard’s Special Events for subduing a genuine Cretan Bull in under a minute without her wand.
Despite all of this, she is afraid of horses, and winged horses – which combine her two fears of heights and equines – are frequent features in her nightmares.
History:
Taryn’s history actually begins with her mother, Ximena Pemberton, who was born a pureblood witch to a traditionalist family in Nevada. In the summer following her graduation from Red Rocks Academy, Ximena decided to forgo the tour of Europe that many students follow and instead decided to tour the North American continent, zig-zagging across the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
While traveling Saskatchewan, Ximena stumbled onto a hidden tribe of giants, who were Scandinavian immigrants that had left Europe generations earlier and did not usually interact with humans, wizard or not. Ximena avoided trouble with the tribe by proved herself more than willing to respect all of the giants’ rules and even disarmed herself of her own wand while traveling among them.
While living with them, she took a liking to a young male named Durkus, who was a somewhat better conversation partner than his companions. Durkus, meanwhile, found Ximena very pretty and enjoyed the magic tricks that she was willing to perform for him. How exactly this relationship blossomed into romance is something that Ximena does not discuss, which Taryn is rather thankful for.
After a few weeks, Ximena left the giants’ care and continued on her trip. It wasn’t until she returned to the United States that she realized she was pregnant. She refused to either abort or give up the child, which made her traditionalist family abandon her. Ximena, equally as stubborn as her future daughter, gathered up her things without complaint and moved to Texas, where she worked full-time to put herself through Magical Law school and gave birth to Taryn. She would eventually become a successful magical lawyer, earning more than enough to support them both.
A few years after Taryn was born, Ximena met a kind young Muggle man, David Dickenson, whom she would eventually marry when Taryn was four. David, to his credit, was surprised by his fiancé’s five-and-a-half-foot four-year-old, but was not unkind to Taryn and taught her to play basketball. Taryn adores her step-father and was more than happy to take his last name, severing the last ties that Ximena had with the family who had abandoned them.
The Pemberton family had a long history of attending Red Rocks, but Ximena did not want to risk Taryn running into any of her cousins or other relatives, who would no doubt make her life more difficult than it needed to be. So she used a bit of her legal influence to have Taryn’s home address listed under David’s parents, who live in New York, so that Taryn would attend Salem instead.
Shortly before Taryn began school, the family – which now included her younger half-sister Minnie, eight years Taryn’s junior – moved into a specially-made house outside of Enchanted Oaks that was more than large enough to keep the growing half-giant comfortable while also avoiding unwanted questions from Muggles. When she started seventh grade, Taryn – now eight feet tall – happily left her awkward elementary school years behind to board at Salem, which she considers very comfortable.
In the years since, Taryn has reached her full height and proven a star member of Salem’s basketball team, in spite of some complaints from opposing teams. (These complaints, after some input from her lawyer mother, were eventually dismissed, because disbarring someone from playing basketball for being too tall would be far too easy to exploit). Her position on the team, as well as her open and friendly personality, has won her many friends at school despite some classmates’ continued judgment of her parentage.
As one of the students who most happily indulges in Salem’s spirit of competition, she has now come to Hogwarts for the Tetra-Wizard Tournament and looks forward to making some foreign friends.
Why was she chosen for the TWT?:
Taryn was brought in for the tournament because of the skill she’s shown as an athlete. Her skill on the basketball court have proven her reliable, and her ability to wrestle powerful creatures like bulls to the ground was deemed quite useful given the tournament’s history of employing dangerous beasts. Her grades are more than acceptable, though by no means perfect, and she’s proven to have some powerful magic at her potential to backup her powerful physical strength.
There are also certain professors at Salem who feel that their school’s acceptance of a half-giant, who has done so well in her sports and her students, reflects positively on the school’s overall reputation as an accepting, progressive melting pot. Since she stands out so well in a crowd, it’s easy to show her off.
Sum up your character in one paragraph:
A friendly and good-natured half-giant basketball star who's proud to find a place where she can fit in at Salem. She's very competitive and lives for the adrenaline rush of new discoveries and adventures. But sometimes, her enthusiasm gets her into trouble, and her strength gets out of control, which can be dangerous.
Taryn Dickenson | Salem Senior