Curiosity Ridgwell

[Curiosity Ridgwell]

In Character

Full Name: Curiosity Charity Ridgwell
Nicknames: City, Cruciosity (by her brother)
Birthdate: October 31, 1859
Current Age: 26
Occupation: Co-owner of The Shimmering Shamrock
Reputation: 2 - She is frequently in the company of prostitutes, known vampires and werewolves, petty criminals, and other unsavory types. She is also a known bastard, frequently publicly intoxicated, and has distinctly unladylike conduct even when she's sober.
Residence: London's East End, below the pub
Hogwarts House: Gryffindor - she and her brother were expelled in their second year after pushing a fellow student off a staircase because he insulted them. He didn't die, so they didn't understand what the big deal was.
Wand: Dogwood, 10", dragon heartstring, supple
Blood Status: Halfblood
Social Class: Middle Class
Family: 

Alaine Ridgwell nee MacNamara - grandmother - b. 1818

Grand Ridgwell - father - b. 1835
Wilhelmina Smythe - mother - b. 1848*   

Charisma Ridgwell - "twin" brother - b. 1859**

The rest of the gang  

*Wilhelmina's family sent her into seclusion once they found out she was pregnant and the child was left on Grand's doorstep not long after being born. She has never publicly been associated with either Grand or Curiosity and now lives as a middle class lady with a respectable husband and plenty of legitimate children. 
**Despite being born on the same day within minutes of each other, Curiosity and Charisma are not twins. Their father impregnated two women at around the same time, making them only half siblings. They tell people they are twins anyway. 

Appearance:

Curiosity is 5'2" - average height - and petite. Her most noticeable features are her looks. The combination of her naturally wavy golden hair, bright blue eyes, and perpetual tan invariably leads to strangers quizzing her on her ethnicity. She enjoys wearing corsets that offer plenty of support for her breasts with low cut, brightly colored, dresses. She is right handed.

 
History: 

1859| Hours after being born, Curiosity (unnamed at the time) is unceremoniously dumped on her father's doorstep. Later that same night, Charisma is also left to his father's care. Grand doesn't sleep for the next five years. 

1860| After months of stalling, Grand finally names the twins. Or, more accurately, the prostitute he's currently enamored with names them. 

1864| Curiosity shows her first signs of magic when she causes Charisma to go bald after he spends most of the day annoying her. 

1871-72| Curiosity and Charisma get their Hogwarts letters over the summer and are sent off to school. Curiosity is sorted into Gryffindor and Charisma is sorted into -----. Despite her outgoing nature, she does not get along well with most of her housemates and prefers arguing with them to polite conversation. The siblings begin to tell people that they are twins to avoid talking about the real circumstances of their birth. Curiosity lives up to her name and batters her teachers with questions at every given opportunity. Though she fights with her brother constantly, the two are inseparable. 

1872-73| The first half of the year goes as well as it can for Curiosity. In the second term, not long after the return from Christmas holidays, the "twins" get into an argument with a boy two years ahead of them on one of the moving staircases. He calls them bastards (which is true), troublemakers (also true), and degenerates (redundant, but true). Still, it strikes a nerve with the two of them and, after a moment of silent communication, they join forces to heave him over the banister. Fortunately, they're not high enough for the fall to kill the boy, but he does end up with broken bones. The twins are promptly expelled. 

1873| In March, their father desperately writes his mother in New York and begs to come back home. She only allows it so he can meet her grandchildren. Grand sorts his affairs in England out by July and the Ridgwells are in the United States by the end of the month. They move to Five Points in lower Manhattan and it's a very different neighborhood to the one Grand remembers from his childhood. The occupants are still predominantly poverty stricken, but revitalization efforts have cleaned the place up significantly. Curiosity is thoroughly awed by the new city and wastes no time getting to know the streets. The twins are informally educated by their grandmother and put to work when she has no patience for them. This work primarily involves them serving as lookouts for the many small time gangs that continue to operate out of Five Points. 

1875| Curiosity, now sixteen, attracts the attention of an older, Irish born gang member. Despite her aggressive disinterest, he continues to pursue her. Curiosity mentions her concerns about him to her grandmother in passing and he turns up face down in the Hudson River a week later. Her grandmother teaches her that the only way to deal with men is to scam them and if they can't be scammed, they're better off dead. Curiosity lacks the same capacity for cold blooded murder, but she turns out to be a fine con artist. 

1877| Curiosity manages to con her way into an engagement with a well off English wizard vacationing in New York for the summer. Accompanied by Charisma, they return to the England in the fall. His family is less than pleased by his choice of wife. 

1879| Thanks to the twins' string pulling, tensions rise between her husband and his family. Curiosity delivers a devastating blow when she convinces her husband to secretly write them all out of the will and name her as the sole beneficiary of his estate. 

1880| Curiosity's husband is concerned by their lack of children. She doesn't care nearly as much, but indulges his desire to try to conceive. 

1882| Still without a child to show for all their efforts, Curiosity's husband begins to think the problem lies with her and becomes distant. When she finds a letter meant for a lawyer asking about divorce, she gets her brother to orchestrate his untimely demise. As stated in his will, she gets everything and her husband's family is frozen out. After that, it doesn't take long for her to get bored with the life of a stay at home widow. She elbows her way into Charisma's friend group which consists solely of an illiterate rat catcher and, in a surprise twist, the older boy they threw off the stairs at school.  

1883| Having been kicked out by his mother, Grand returns to London and Curiosity reluctantly puts him up in a guest bedroom. Grand worms his way into his children's tiny social circle, much to their dismay. They're a motley crew who hate each other half the time, but a bizarre form of codependency develops rapidly and keeps them all together.

1884| After winning a high stakes game of Exploding Snap, Curiosity and Charisma end up as the owners of a dilapidated building in the East End. They argue over what to do with it until their father suggests turning it into a legitimate business. He argues that because part of the building was already pub that shut down years ago renovation wouldn't take much effort, and the rest of it could easily be rented out if it was cleaned and furnished. Curiosity is reluctant to go along with it because it sounds like a lot of work with little to no opportunities for scheming. In the end, the rest of the gang teams up to harass her into supplying the necessary funds. 

1885| The renovation is finished in August. The final touch Curiosity adds before officially opening the (woefully legitimate) business is a new name. While the gang likes the old name - The Dead Rooster - she refuses to be affiliated with something so tasteless. After a lengthy discussion that devolves into incoherent, drunken arguing, they settle on The Shimmering Shamrock. Curiosity and Charisma end up with the most important jobs, managing the bar and running the boarding house respectively. Grand, Rat Catcher, and Stairs are meant to do odd jobs, but they end up getting into trouble more often than not. The pub's first patrons are Grand's other friends who are even stranger than the gang is. That kind of sets the tone for the whole thing. All manner of creeps and weirdos begin to trot through the pub's doors and Curiosity gives up on trying to cultivate a less insane clientele. 

1886| After a morphine party gone wrong, Curiosity decides she is fed up with her family's antics and moves into the flat beneath the pub, leaving the house to Charisma and Grand. Despite the gang's continued fuck ups and shenanigans, ShimSham is somehow a functional business. 

Other Information: 

The Shimmering Shamrock Pub and Boarding House is, as the name implies, a combination pub and boarding house. It is owned by Curiosity and her brother Charisma. It primarily services the unsavory, unwanted members of the magical community, and as such no respectable person would ever be caught dead there. The building is unplottable and has a number of strong protective wards thanks to the paranoia of the previous owner. 

The building is comprised of six floors. The first floor (basement) contains the boiler room and other relevant machinery as well as a flat where Curiosity resides. The second floor is the pub. The third is the common living area for boarders. The fourth through sixth floors are rooms for boarders. The floors above the pub are only accessible via key and rooms may come with keys of their own. Nicer rooms come with higher price tags. Boarders can arrange to stay bed (bed only), bed-and-breakfast (bed and breakfast only), half-board (bed, breakfast and dinner only) or full-board (bed, breakfast, lunch and dinner)¹. 

The place is notorious for housing people and beings who aren't welcome anywhere else. Their only restrictions are on hags who are allowed on a case by case basis. Neither Curiosity nor Charisma care much for enforcing rules, but generally murder and assault are frowned upon. Property destruction is an automatic ban unless said property is replaced by the offending party. They also have a firm 'don't ask, don't tell' policy. So long as a patron's business isn't disruptive to anyone, they don't care what's going on. 

The establishment is commonly referred to as ShimSham by regulars and staff.

¹ Boarding house wiki

Personality: 

an honest to God mess of a human being | a terrible person with little to no redeeming qualities | selfish | hedonist | impulsive | foul-mouthed | easily provoked | she absolutely will fight you

Sample Roleplay Post: 
An actual image of Curiosity 

Out of Character

Name: Alex
Age: 21
Contact: PM, messenger
Other Characters: >.> 
How did you hear about us?: Already hereeee

  

[Odira Potter]

APPLICATION ACCEPTED!

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