Nicole Archer

Out of Character (tell us just just a bit about you outside RP)

Name: Sub
Note: Playing Gage Hall, Alan Reed, Vinzent and Charisma Zolnerowich, and Pamela Avery-Moreau


In Character
Name: Nicole Archer
Age: 32
Gender: Female
Blood Rank: Muggle-born (though is practically a sort of muggle-born squib)
House: none
School: Salem (first year only); Attended Muggle schools and colleges
Career: Part-time security guard / bouncer for bars and nightclubs (tends to rotate shifts at both magical and muggle establishments as needed; sometimes even gets into job when off-duty); is part of the organization of wizard hunters with Mark Yaxley



Parents: Brendan and Katrina Archer
Grandparents: Leonard and Grace Archer; Marvin and Stephanie Scriven
Siblings: Travis and James Archer
Aunts & Uncles: Irene Archer-Sloane (married Elliot Sloane), Christopher Archer (married Sophia); Maria (Scriven) Townsend (married Edward Townsend), Alexander Scriven (married Emma Powell)
Nieces & Nephews: Michelle “Shelly” Archer (adopted as her step-daughter)
Cousins: Brittany Sloane (Irene); Ryan Archer (Christopher); Peter Townsend (Maria); and Horace Scriven (Alexander)
Ex-Parents-In-Law: Patrick and Gwenneth Delaney
Ex-Uncle-In-Law: Richard Delaney
Ex-Siblings-In-Law: Kyle, Neil, Sean, and Lewis Delaney
Ex-Nieces/Nephews: Thomas, Patricia, Lindsay, and Ellen Delaney
Children: Step-daughter/niece Shelly Archer, mentioned above
Grandkids: TBA




Skin color: “Sun-kissed” tan
Hair Color: Dirty blonde (occasionally dyes her hair)
Hair length: One-third down her back; often pulled into a ponytail
Eye color: Green
Size: 5’ 2” though acts as though much taller
Build: Curvy and muscular
Picture:

[Jeri Ryan]



Crushes: Julian Kaiser (edit 8/18)
Mates/Spouse: Brian Delaney
Status: In a relationship with Julian Kaiser (edit 8/18)



Personality: Nicole never was an overly feminine specimen of the biologically female persuasion. She greatly admired both parents, though was closer to her father. And with only brothers to play with it was either like what they liked or play by herself. Therefore, she spent quite a bit of time playing and roughhousing like a little boy. Her father, hoping all three might one day enlist in the military, even encouraged them to undergo a lighter but similar routine he did when in boot camp. Brendan Archer took care of their physical fitness, while Katrina took care of their academic fitness. Because of her boyish upbringing, Nicole can be seen as being uncommonly aggressive in certain situations, and come across as gruff even when she doesn’t necessarily intend to be so.

She is also quite harsh toward herself and to others when something doesn’t necessarily go according to plan. An advocate of discipline, to a degree, she will punish herself in the way of some form of work needing to be done, and during such times may display workaholic tendencies. If she has the authority Nicole will prescribe “military-esque” discipline techniques as applicable per the situation. Nicole’s temper is best described as explosive, hence one may see her engaged in a physical activity with similar passion in order to expend the pent-up energy. One such thing that causes her temper to flare is learning she has been lied to. It is the one thing she refuses to tolerate. If lied to, her trust is very difficult to win back.

In regards to trust, Nicole never truly trusts to her full extent. This is in large part due to her past experiences. However, she is loyal until the trust that has been forged breaks or if there is a very good reason for her to break that thread first. Typically she has closer companionship with those who had served time in the military, though she can form relationships just as close with non-servicemen and –women. A few other aspects to Nicole’s personality that are strongly influenced by her past include a great amount of calm when under stressful and/or life-threatening situations, possession of a great inner strength and resilience, a persistent attitude, and a bit of an obsession with guns that leads her to be a touch more trigger happy than the average individual. As a result of her desire and need in most situations to stay strong Nicole occasionally has trouble displaying certain emotions. Weakness is never an option for her. Wearing one’s heart on one’s sleeve in the woman’s opinion is a sure-fire way to indicate times of vulnerability.

One such area of vulnerability for Nicole is her loved ones. It is difficult for her to speak of her parents, or any parents for that matter. Even acknowledging her role as Shelly’s step-mother is somewhat of a challenge. In fact she tries to avoid discussion of family altogether, which makes things difficult with a little girl curious about her origins always asking questions. It has given Nicole a rather short fuse when someone begins asking what she considers to be too many questions in one sitting.

One would think that with Nicole’s gruff, military-like exterior that she would be that way all around. However, beneath that hardened exterior is a woman with a soft side. It takes a while to get to this inner core and isn’t often shown to just anyone. There will be no doubt in the recipient’s mind when Nicole reveals this side of herself either via words or actions, but moreso the latter.

Although possibly more serious than most, Nicole does like to get out and have a good time every now and then. And if she can’t get out to the metaphorical party then she will bring said party a bit closer to home. She is a firm believer in the phrase “all work and no play makes Jack/Jill a dull boy/girl”. Nicole loves to have fun whenever possible. Most of said fun is often in the form of drinking or friendly competition, and is not really one for dancing. For a woman she has quite a high tolerance for alcohol (and by an unrelated extension, pain). She likes laughing and making people laugh, lighthearted teasing (a.k.a. messing with people), and has a good sense of humor. One of her blatant downfalls is chocolate.

Overall, Nicole is a good comrade to have on one’s side and tends to weave between all-business and all-play. She sticks to her guns (literally) and can be a bit stubborn once her mind is made up, but she is incredibly loyal and will follow requests asked of her to a “T”. Her ideals are a bit skewed in regards to the magical world, having a love/hate relationship with it ever since she was first attacked and had her magic taken from her. So long as you don’t discriminate against those that do not have magic or possess a lineage that is less than the notion of ‘pure’ (or siphon off someone of such heritage’s magic) you’re fine in Nicole’s book.




Your Story Please?
Nicole is the second-born and only daughter of Brendan and Katrina Archer. The family lives in Sleepy Hollow, New York. Her brother, Travis, is older than her by six years. James is three years her junior. To Nicole’s knowledge her family is all-muggle. Or at least the adults are. Travis, James, and herself were all gifted with magic. Brendan is a sergeant in the Marines, and Katrina is a professor at the local community college. Katrina’s subject involves the history and practices involved in “the occult”.

Amazement filled the young girl’s eyes when her brother received his acceptance letter to a magical school right in the USA, and they met with a wizard that had agreed to take on Travis’s case as Mentor and Guide to this new magical world. It was already known she too possessed some magical ability and couldn’t wait until she began to take lessons in magic, too. Sure enough, when she turned eleven, Nicole received her own letter. Her first year at Salem Institute couldn’t have been any more fun! The only thing she didn’t like, however, was that her brother was way ahead of her in magical learning and often dangled it over her head in play.

At the age of twelve, before the school year hit, Nicole and her family were attacked. She had no idea who the terrible people were, but there had been a lot of them. The little girl had been awakened by a scream from James, and shouts of terror from her parents. At first she hid under her bed, especially when she heard footsteps thundering down the hall towards her room. It was a very bad idea. However, when the person knelt to check under the bed she managed to hit the person in the face with a Nerf dart fired by an air pistol – one of her favorite toys – and scrambled for the door. She ran to her parents’ room and found they had both been killed, and in a panic searched for her father’s pistol. Travis seemed to be fighting the bad people off. She needed to find James and help Travis...

Nicole found both of her brothers in the same room: James’s bedroom. Several wizards, she realized, were holding her brother down while one was doing something strange to him. The same was happening to James. Terrified and not wanting her brothers to be killed, Nicole raised her father’s weapon. Like most muggle-raised children she had some knowledge on how to use a weapon like this thanks to video games. However, unlike some, she had a bit of an advantage by having a father in the military for he showed both her and Travis how to use one, and when it was okay to. Nicole fired twice: once at Travis’s assailant, and once at James’s. Unfortunately neither shot had been lethal but it caused two of them to retreat.

The others, however, rounded on her.

Nicole tried to fire the gun again, only to find the weapon was out of bullets. Horrified, she ran. The girl had only limited knowledge of offensive magic, and hadn’t thought about magic at all. When three of the wizards finally caught her it crossed her mind, particularly when one of them started doing something weird with her magic. It fluctuated and flickered, then drained, and flickered again. Before whatever they had done succeeded fully, Travis had come to the rescue with a re-loaded pistol, managing killing shots on two of Nicole’s three attackers.

Assessing the damages was not an easy feat. Travis, being of age by wizarding standards, took care of his parents’ final affairs. James was scarred beyond recall by the incident, and had lost his budding magical talents to the attackers. Because of the physical and emotional damages, the younger boy has been confined to a wheelchair. Travis himself also found he was completely without magic, yet able to still enter magical communities. Nicole’s magic was stunted but not depleted, and is something Travis greatly resents: that now she can do magic, but he can’t. Yet it was because of this stunted magical ability that she was disallowed to return to school. Instead she relied upon tutors and mentors to provide for her magical schooling, and attended a muggle school. She was the only one interested in her mother’s plethora of books on the occult, and both she and Travis divvied up their father’s weaponry and military gear.

Travis, not wanting the responsibility of his parents, soon gave up Nicole and James to separate aunts and uncles. He wanted to live his own life and as far away from his still-magical sister as possible. James was foisted on Alexander Scriven, while Nicole was sent to live with Chris Archer. Christopher Archer was yet another military man, and his wife was also involved in the military.

At the age of 18, shortly after graduating from high school, Nicole signed up with a division of the United States Military. She served for a total of 5 years, though had fallen in love with and married half-blood auror Brian Delaney by her second year in the service. Despite her training and such taking up most of her time, Nicole spent much of her free time with her new husband. After five years her step-parents tried to get her to sign up for more service time, but Nicole declined in favor of truly having a life with Brian.

Life with Brian had been blissful while she was in the military and for six months after she came home to stay. After that, however, it all started to decline. Brian proved himself to not be the kind man he had made himself out to be. As their fourth wedding anniversary surfaced, so too did Brian’s abusive nature. His assaults reminded her of the horror she’d experienced as a twelve-year-old girl. Unlike her typical self she did not fight him. She truly believed she loved Brian, and often froze upon reliving the trauma of years passed. Trying to pretend nothing was wrong, Nicole employed the help of cosmetics and glamour charms alike.

Desperate for someone that she could trust, Nicole reconnected with Travis. The two talked for several hours while Nicole was out on a grocery run. It didn’t take him long to notice his “tough little sister” was amidst a battle at home. He advised that Nicole leave the wizard, but not before shooting him, and moving on. Unfortunately that was most unhelpful. To change the topic Travis introduced her to his little daughter, Michelle, whom he simply called Shelly. He asked if at some point Nicole would mind baby-sitting the kid to give him and his wife some time alone. Without question she agreed. The woman didn’t care if her husband didn’t like it. And dislike it, Brian did. What Travis had failed to tell Nicole was that firstly he lied: his wife had died in childbirth. The part about him wanting to go out and have fun was truth. Travis completely avoided the facts that had run up gambling debts and bar tabs, and that he was personally a bit jealous even his daughter had magical powers and he no longer had his.

On the thirteenth night he asked Nicole to baby-sit, Travis committed suicide. In his will he asked that custody of Michelle be granted to Nicole. One of Nicole’s aunts arranged the funeral services. However, when Nicole went to leave to go to the funeral, Brian stopped her. They fought over whether she would go or not. Remembering the then-hurtful words her brother had said, Nicole decided that enough was enough where Brian was concerned. She fought back, not at all pulling punches. He fought more with magic and managed to get the upper-hand by plying a few underhanded tricks and a round of Cruciatus. Once released from the curse Nicole took several moments to catch her breath. As Brian came toward her to do only Merlin knew what, Nicole scrambled for the firearm on her ankle and fatally shot him. To make sure he was dead, she fired a few extraneous shots that were purely vengeful. After cleaning herself up she packed her things and went to the funeral, not intending to ever come back to the house.

Nicole and Michelle stayed with a female friend of Travis’s, Blair Ashcroft, whom Nicole had become acquainted with at the funeral. She didn’t fully trust this friend, for she was a witch, but she didn’t see any other options. Nicole revealed what had happened, and asked for the other’s assistance in finding a new place to live. As it turned out Blair was originally from London, England, and had a small house there she was still looking to sell. In an instant, Nicole accepted the offer. By her twenty-fifth birthday Nicole was out of the country to live a new life. As far as she was concerned her husband did not deserve to be found or treated for burial by those in the system, and she didn’t feel she needed to be subjected to the hassle of police business that usually went on in such cases. With her penchant for firearms they could clearly deem her a murderer, especially if his family decided to interfere with the case. It was just better this way, instead.

Her plan worked well for three whole years...

Nicole took care of little Shelly and made a living as a bouncer in a nightclub, though often had to make use of a nanny so that the child was not home alone. Despite the child’s magical abilities Nicole enrolled her in muggle school. She was forbidden to speak of magic anywhere but at home or in the magical community. Each weekend was a field trip for Shelly to the magical world with her aunt/step-mother. It amazed Nicole for the longest time that she had such a twist to her generally rough-and-tumble personality to mother and nurture her niece as well as teach the child to be tough.

One day while Shelly was off to school, Nicole returned home to find the place ransacked. Automatically on the alert, Nicole drew her weapons and began searching the house. Invisibility cloaks made the search all the more difficult for the woman. Sure enough, before she could react properly Nicole was struck over the head with a heavy object and knocked out cold.

Whatever happened between when she lost consciousness and when she woke up again is mostly a mystery. However, she did wake up in time to see Brian’s brother, Kyle, looming over her and beginning a spell to siphon the magic out of her. With most of her guns out of her reach there was little to nothing she could do. That is, until she remembered the one she kept at her back. It took a bit of grappling but she managed to free it from its holster and aim it at the wizard. When he refused to back down, Nicole fired. She sent the cadaver back to her in-laws with a message pinned onto Kyle’s robes. It was an ultimatum: either leave her alone, or she would hunt and kill every last one of them. Too weakened by the assault, Nicole called up the nanny she hired and asked that the woman pick up Shelly from school.

Their lives were somewhat normal after that. The only difference was that Nicole had a bit more magic than a squib, but not much. Using any amount of magic tired her out greatly for several hours. The only good thing was she seemed to be able to cast nearly any spell still, despite the toll on her stamina. Not wanting to be separated from the magical world, yet despising all but the muggle-borns and squibs in it, Nicole still made trips into the wizarding sectors but did not often stay there long unless accompanied by Shelly.

At present, Nicole is 32 years old and Shelly just recently turned 11. Nicole has pulled Shelly out of Muggle school for her impending years at Hogwarts. Their relationship is close, much like how Nicole had been close to her father. Nicole has formed an alliance with fellow wizard-hunter Mark Yaxley, though she has yet to introduce him to her step-daughter/niece. Given what she knows about his hatred for anything magical (discovered when she asked him to combine magic with muggle technology, to which Nicole could tell Mark had not been fond of), the woman is actually a bit hesitant yet curious to see what happens. Perhaps just before the school year starts...




Magic Specialty None
Favorite Spell: N/A



Weakness:
- Has trouble with displaying certain emotions
- Semi-unintentionally gruff
- Is reluctant to trust fully (especially magical individuals)
- Harsh on self and others
- Explosive temper
- Trigger-happy
- Michelle “Shelly” and James Archer (basically her loved ones)
- Has an obsession with guns
- Loves chocolate and drinking
- Absolutely cannot stand being lied to
- Has issues with the magical world, yet also loves it
- Extremely limited, almost nonexistent magical ability despite her knowledge

Strengths:
+ Loyal (until trust is broken or given a reason otherwise)
+ Resourceful/Creative
+ Fun-loving
+ Disciplined to a degree
+ Strong alcohol and pain thresholds
+ Persistent
+ Has a soft side to counter her gruff exterior (even though she doesn’t show it often)
+ Can do some magic (albeit at cost of energy level)
+ Great inner strength and resilience
+ Can remain calm under most stressful if not life-threatening situations
+ Excellent marksmanship with a gun, bow, darts, or other such projectile weaponry (not so hot with aiming via wand)

Favorite Color: Doesn’t have a single favorite color; though does wear lots of camouflage

Theme song: Indestructible by Disturbed