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[remembertheroses]

Player Information
Name: Ming
Timezone: GMT +10/11
Personal Journal: fanfictionming
Players Contact/AIM/MSN/YAHOO: Fanfictionming@Plurk
Email Address: mingrps@gmail.com
Former/Other Characters in the RP: Phil Coulson, Greg Lestrade
How did you hear about us?: Current player in the game
Character Information
Name: Ib (Some sources have stated that Ib is short for Isabella, while the original translator of the game claims that Ib is a mispronunciation of Eve. I will opt for the latter.)
School Year: 1st year
Gender: Female
Age: 11
Out of school living location: Greater London. In this AU Ib's parents moved from Japan to work in London, and Greater London is known for having one of the bigger Japanese communities in the UK.
Blood status: Raised Muggleborn, but is biologically Pureblood.

Personality:

Ib is a quiet young girl who prefers not to speak if she can help it. A natural born introvert she doesn't speak much unless spoken to and as a result, she is not a very sociable person. She's a bit of a loner simply because she prefers painting by herself rather than hanging out with her friends. She lives in her own little world and she's fine with this. This is not to say that she isn't a friendly person; she can be helpful and caring towards others, even strangers. However a friendship with Ib has to come from the other party; she won't make the first step. She's not against having friends, but her own preference for solitude and her passive nature is definitely a barrier to her opening up to others.

Although Ib is a difficult person to make friends with she is blessed with a very loving heart. She cares and is concerned about other people's well-being even if she doesn't know them. She doesn't like hurting others or seeing others getting hurt because of her. However if it's to protect someone from harm, Ib is willing to make the hard decisions. For a 9 year old girl, she demonstrated nerves of steel when it came to protecting Garry, her fellow prisoner.

Although Ib has her moments of maturity, she is still a child and will act as such at times when she is very stressed. She is capable of getting upset and throwing slight tantrums when things are going horrible for her; these are the moments when she is most vocal and assertive. She isn't brave but rather she does brave things simply for survival or because someone she cares about is in danger. At the end of the day she is still 9 years old, and the events at the museum were definitely horrifying and potentially traumatizing for her. She even collapses at one point from the mental and psychological stress.

Lastly, Ib is bright, observant young girl. She's sharp, and that combined with her quick thinking has definitely saved her skin more than once. She is alert enough to notice small irregularities that hint at the answer to a puzzle. Ib is also curious, especially if a topic she likes is involved or if it's something interesting and/or new. She's usually a quiet one but when art is the subject matter she starts to play 20 questions, even with random strangers at the art gallery. However her grasp of English is not particularly good; she relies on Gary to inform her on the meanings of certain words.

Canon Background: Ib lives in a relatively normal world like ours, except that magic can happen, and is not necessarily friendly. The game plot in brief is here.

"Ib" is about how a young girl visits an art gallery for an exhibition but instead gets sucked into a topsy-turvy world created by the late artist Guertena. There are multiple choices for Ib's actions and replies in the game, and I will be basing her canon!Background on a particular set.

The game starts with Ib and her parents arriving at the art gallery. Ib's mother passes her a handkerchief, a beloved gift from her mother for her birthday, and reminds her not to lost it. Ib is then given permission by her parents to wander the art gallery on her own while they purchase tickets; her parents trust her to behave without them around. Her mother is also very sure that Ib would enjoy the exhibition and hopes that her daughter will come to appreciate Guertena's works just as she does. Ib, already curious and interested in art, explores the exhibition thoroughly. She discusses the meanings of some of the sculptures, advises a young boy not to disturb another exhibit and comes to conclusions of her own when interpreting a painting although she does not have a good grasp of English to understand the titles of some of the paintings. Her interpretation earns her her father's praise as well as his hopes that she becomes an artist herself. Although some of the art pieces confuse her, she does her best to understand and appreciate what she can.

However, what started out as a fun family day at the art gallery quickly turns into something more sinister.

While observing the largest portrait in the museum the lights suddenly start flickering. All chatter and music suddenly fades away and Ib soon discovers that everyone else in the gallery has mysteriously vanished. The sound of footsteps leads her back downstairs to the main reception and the lights completely dim once she reaches the end of the staircase. Frightened, she tries to leave only for the front door to be locked. She tries the windows instead but the bright sunny skies outside have been replaced by fog and as she tries to rub the glass, thinking it a smudge, red liquid mysteriously leaks through the window panes and shocking her tremendously. Unsettled by the events, Ib continues to search for any signs of her parents or even anyone and eventually finds a message, calling her to one of the exhibits. Blue footsteps walk towards it and Ib follows them. To her surprise she finds she can walk into the exhibit itself. With a deep breath, she takes her first step inside and discovers, instead of paint and paper, a staircase going down.

However the way back is sealed; Ib quickly realises that if she is to return home, the only way she can move is forward. As she explores the new rooms she finds a red rose, a key, and a cryptic message: "When your rose ???, so too will you life ???." Ib's lack of English prevents her from understanding the message but the sudden change of the portrait in front of her frightens her and she quickly leaves the room. Outside the room is a vase full of water and Ib, in the kindness of her heart, decides to water the rose as it looks slightly unwell. Immediately after she does so she strangely feels a lot better than before. The message with the English words she could not understand comes back to mind and she puts two and two together: her life is tied to the wellbeing of her rose. So long as it was alright so too is she. If it dies...

Ib takes great care to keep her rose safe as she solves the puzzles around her to find the key to the next room. Still, she finds time to help even the tiniest of beings; an ant requests to see its portrait, requiring Ib to pass through a long corridor. Another sinister message awaits her right before the start: "Beware the edges." Ib takes the advice to heart and creeps carefully in the middle of the passage and it turns out to be a wise idea, as black claws swipe out from the walls, trying to claw her rose. Scared but determined all the same, Ib races down the corridor, grabs the portrait and runs back to the ant. The ant is grateful, but Ib soon figures out an alternative use of the painting; as a platform on which she can lay down across a hole to safely walk over it. On the other side she finds not only a key, but a headless sculpture. Uneasy about the sculpture, she nevertheless crosses over to obtain the key, certain that it was needed for another locked door. Upon doing so though, she awakens the sculpture which starts chasing her. Leading it back over the chasm, the ant's portrait breaks as she crosses it, and Ib is saved from the headless sculpture for the time being.

Ib solves puzzle after puzzle similar to the one described above by herself while narrowly evading the dangers of the museum through her observation skills and her quick wit. Eventually though she stumbles upon a man that she had seen earlier in the art gallery. Appearing to be badly injured, Ib refuses to leave him behind. Clues hint towards a blue rose somewhere in the area which she locates and rescues from one of the sentient portraits that chases people around to hurt them. Reviving the blue rose by placing it in another vase of water, she returns to the young man and watches as his wounds magically heal after she gives him back his rose. Introducing himself as Garry, Garry joins Ib as they continue their way through Guertena's dark world, solving puzzles and outwitting the sculptures and portraits that hunt them down in each level. As strong as Ib is though, at one point she collapses from the mental stress of the museum. Garry then takes her to a safe zone, where he lays her down and covers her with his coat to keep her warm. Ib soon awakens and after a conversation between the two which consists mainly of Garry apologizing for not taking better care of her and Ib asking questions and learning more about her new friend, they decide to continue exploring in hopes of finding a way out. Garry's kindness to Ib does not go unnoticed by her though, and Garry grows fonder of the quiet but tough kid.

The two eventually bump into Mary, yet another lost person trying to find a way out. Garry invites Mary to come along with them and the other girl quickly agrees. Ib welcomes her as well and together the three continue on their way. However, a painting causes Mary and Ib to be separated from Garry. Against Garry's wishes, Mary suggests that she and Ib look in the next room for something to destroy the stone vines blocking their way. Ib is reluctant to leave Garry but she does eventually agree with Mary after some encouragement from them both, and the two girls move on while Garry works on his side of the room to find a way to reunite with them. As the three of them get closer and closer to getting Garry back, Mary starts to display strange behaviour: she asks Ib questions about Garry, about her parents, and even asks Ib that if she were to choose between Mary and Garry, who would she pick. Unsuspecting and trusting Ib answers each question truthfully: no, Garry isn't her father, yes she has a mother who loves her, and that she'd rather sacrifice her freedom and let her two friends escape, if it came down to it. Meanwhile, Garry has to solve puzzles on his side of the trap and in the course of doing so discovers a frightening revelation: Mary is in fact a portrait, similar to the headless sculptures, the mannequins, and the crazy paintings that have been trying to hurt both him and Ib. Mary starts to display even stranger behaviour and eventually she starts threatening Ib with a knife. Right before any damage can be done though, Garry finally reunites with Ib to save her by knocking Mary out. In shock, all Ib could do was hug Garry tightly and try not to cry. Garry consoles and comforts Ib and the two leave an unconscious Mary behind; Gary counsels her against a second glance back, but Ib couldn't help but spare her former friend one last look before they moved on to the last area: a crayon drawn world done by Mary herself.

Garry and Ib take advantage of a spot of fake sun to chat awhile and Garry promises that once they get out, he'll buy Ib a macaron. Cheered by that, they solve the last puzzle to obtain a key to a toy box, which in turn was supposed to hold the key to the pink room and to their freedom. The tox box soon proved to be more than that, as Mary returned and pushed the two inside. Ib and Garry fall into a prison space, with Ib losing her rose in the process. They find the key to the pink room, but it is Mary who finds Ib's rose. Garry sacrifices his own life by offering to trade his blue rose for Ib's red one. Despite Ib's protests the trade is done and Mary quickly runs off with Garry's rose, but not before setting the guards of the tox box on the two. Escaping their pursuers, Ib watches in horror as Garry slowly starts to faint. The blue petals scattered on the ground quickly cue her in: Mary was ripping the petals off Garry's rose. Eventually he can go no further, but right before he faints he encourages her to carry on without him. Determined to save Garry, Ib decides that she won't leave without him. Instead of heading to the pink room, she decides to explore one last area in an attempt to locate Mary and demand her friend's health back. The area is blocked off by rose vines, so Ib heads back to a sleeping Garry and picks up his lighter. The rose vines are burned to reveal a staircase, leading to an attic. Ib takes only a few steps forward before she hears thundering footsteps behind her. Mary appears, and in a fit of rage brandishes a knife at Ib and ordering her to leave. Ib flees deeper into the attic and discovers what Mary had not wanted her to find: an empty picture frame. In a flash, she knows what she has to do. Ib sets the frame on fire with Garry's lighter just as Mary catches up to her; she watches in horror as Mary slowly burns to ashes in front of her eyes. What makes the pain even worse, other than the fact that she had killed someone, was that she also could not find a way to bring Garry back. Mary's notes were just her thoughts on leaving the portrait, making new friends, and being a real girl.

In sorrow Ib moves to the pink room with neither Mary or Garry. The pink room then leads her back to an alternate form of the gallery. Ib wanders around the place, slightly in a daze as she grieves the lost of Garry and even Mary. She stumbles back on the biggest portrait that started it all. As she gazes at it, suddenly the frame disappears and she notices that the portrait was now a portrait of the real art gallery. She had found her way home! Right before she could jump through though, Guertena's pieces made one last attempt to drag Ib away from home. Sending fake versions of her mother and Garry, the fakes implore Ib to follow them instead. But little Ib, as much as she wanted to depend on an adult for reassurance, knew that they weren't real. Without further ado she leaps into the portal back home.

When she finally arrives back in her world, she finds she has no memory of what she had been doing. She remembers nothing of Garry, Mary, and her time in Guertana's art world. Confused as to why she feels so tired when she's just been in the art exhibition for a short while, Ib stumbles upon a picture of a young man asleep, entitled "Forgotten Portrait". It brings her a familiar feeling, like she's seen him somewhere before...she gives it one more look before she follows her mother to a different exhibit, feeling a sense of unexplainable sorrow.

There is not much background information given about Ib prior to the museum. We know that she has parents who care about her. Her mother mentions that she is not the type to create trouble, and thus allows her to go on first to the exhibitions without them as her parents sort out ticket prices. Ib's mother also mentions that there are not a lot of things that Ib enjoys, but art exhibitions are noted to be one of the exceptions. Overall, there isn't anything to suggest that Ib has not lead a normal life for a nine year old with her own likes and dislikes prior to the events in the gallery.

Background (AU!Canon; HP): [The first word is Pooting.]
Ib started out life as an orphan in Tokyo, Japan, with no knowledge of her real parents. She was adopted at the age of five by a well-meaning Muggle couple who had long wanted a child but were unable to have one themselves. Ib's new father and mother wanted to give her an interesting name and her mother held a degree in English. They both settled on calling their new daughter Eve; pronounced as "Ee-bu" in Japanese. Ib's parents were very loving to her and they brought her up to be a well-mannered and polite young girl. Her only flaws was her tendency to ask many questions over topics that interested her and her otherwise overly passive and quiet nature. Ib also found many things to be of non-interest to her; the only exception being art. Her parents quickly capitalized on this and sent her to extra art classes. By the time she was nine Ib could draw and paint very well, demonstrating an eye for detail and a passion for art. Ib herself loved painting, to the joy of her mother, an amateur painter herself. Ib also started demonstrating some small acts of magic: tubes of paint on high shelves started rolling by themselves off the shelves and down to the ground, well within her reach. Or messes made during her art sessions would mysteriously disappear by themselves a few minutes after she made them. She herself noticed the strange occurances but although worried she said nothing of it for fear her parents wouldn't believe her.

Sometime after her 8th birthday, Ib's mother was offered a job in the UK. Her father good-naturedly agreed to the transfer, and the little Japanese family moved to Greater London. The Japanese community there helped them to settle in and gave Ib chances to practise her English; while not exactly perfect, she has a decent vocabulary and she knew her grammar well. Between school and extra help from her mother, Ib soon found her English improving. Far from fluent, but enough for her to understand most of what was being said to her. She still found it hard to speak the new language, and this only reinforced her quiet nature further as she was shy about her speaking skills. She could only answer and ask simple questions back then but she continued to work at her English in hopes of getting better.

When Ib became nine, her mother gave her a lace handkerchief for her birthday that Ib came to treasure dearly, while her father made bookings for an art exhibition at a small gallery. Ib's mother was a fan of the artist Guertena and his abstract art; it was the hopes of her parents that she would not only have an enjoyable time at the exhibition, but that she would also grow to like Guertena's works which were often overlooked by a lot of people. At first things were great. She asked and discussed art with some of the gallery goers, she came to her own interpretations of some of the portraits, and they were really well painted. To top it all off, she got to spend time with her parents.

However, Ib's fledgling magic unknowingly activated a magical portrait in the museum. As she gazed on the biggest portrait in the room, she took a few steps backwards, hoping to be able to view the entire portrait if she backed up enough. Unfortunately, she did not notice as the portrait behind her flickered, and instead of hitting a wall she stepped completely through the hidden entrance to a secret room of the museum. The entrance lead her to a space much like the Room of Requirement; in fact, it was Guertena's Room of Requirement, where he stored all his failed works.

The artist Guertena wasn't just a normal artist; he was a wizard who specialized in transfiguration. Guertena painted many magical wizard portraits. He is in fact one of the best wizards when it comes to painting wizard portraits. His paintings are noted to be very life-like and similar to the original subject, to the point that some clients rejected some of his art because they were too similar to their real-life counterparts. In his final years though Guertena attempted to bring life to some of his pieces; he wanted them to not only talk and interact with others, but to be able to step out of their picture frames and live normal lives. It was his plan; if he could somehow create life through art, then he could simple paint himself as a younger man and live on even after his current body died. Guertena never succeeded in his chase for immortality and he died with the regret that not one of his works actually came to life. All he had managed to create were horrible disfigured monsters; women half stuck in canvasses, dolls that could not imitate flesh, as well as sculptures that lacked intelligence and feelings. Before his death, he threw all the failed experiments into a space he had created with some tricky transfiguration magic, and it was this space that Ib had unknowingly stumbled on. Turning behind she discovered nothing but a brick wall with a cryptic sentence left on it, encouraging her to explore the space further. As she did so she discovered that the whole place was a lot bigger than it looked, but nevertheless a desire to go home and see her parents again propelled her forward to search for the exit.

Ib soon found herself terrified in Guertena's twisted dumping site for his illegal experiments. Running for her life at nearly every room she wanted nothing more to go home with her two other trapped prisoners: Garry, a fellow gallery goer that she had noticed, and Mary, another young girl. Garry himself was a normal Muggle who had been sucked into the portrait around the same time Ib had, although he ended up in a different section of the space than her. Ib had to solve many puzzles and brave the malicious paintings and sculptures in order to find her way home, first by herself, then with Garry, and eventually Mary. However, Mary's true identity, that she was just a painting by Guertena, was discovered by Garry. Mary took vengeance by attacking him, stabbing him with a dagger shaped like a blue rose and shoving him behind a tattered veil before fleeing herself.

This veil had been one of Guertena's last works. Guertena had first attempted to bring to life his portraits by enchanting them after he painted or created them. This lead to the ladies who were stuck halfway through their portraits and the moving dolls and headless sculptures. However, he realised that in the course of doing so he had not created beings who could think for themselves; the monsters only acted on instinct, attacking the first thing they could see with no rhyme or reason. Guertena then attempted to create a safe gateway through the portrait and the real world instead. Inspired by an old painting he saw of a Veil, coincidentally the same Veil hidden in the Department of Mysteries, Guertena sculptured and created his own Veil. He then painted a copy of the veil into his paintings in the hopes that the character in the painting would be able to walk through the Veil on its side, and emerge into the real world through the Veil on Guertena's side. Guertena only just managed to complete his last picture before he died, so he never got to witness its apparent success; Mary was the only one of his works who successfully crossed the threshold between the art world and the real world.

As Garry fell through the Veil, his body completely disappeared from sight. Upset, Ib ran after Mary hoping to somehow convince the painting to bring her friend back, but all she found was an empty picture frame with that same veil painted in the background. Any chances of negotiating with Mary went out the window as the other girl screeched and ran at Ib with a palette knife. In a fit of panic, Ib used the lighter that Garry had given her earlier and set the picture frame on fire. In the end, Mary, despite Mary's hopes and dreams and feelings, she was still just a painting, made out of paper and paint instead of flesh and blood. She could cross the barrier, but she would never be able to change who she truly was and right before Ib's eyes, Mary burned up into paper ashes as her picture frame was engulfed by fire. Left alone, with no Mary and no way to save Garry, Ib wandered deeper within the room, eventually stumbling upon a portrait familiar to the one she had been observing before she landed here. The presence of her magic activated it and quick-witted Ib realised that just as she had walked through it to get into this space in the first place, so did she have to walk through it again to escape. Ib leapt right into the painting and resurfaced back into her world, but a Memory Charm set to go off if anyone but Guertena left, just in case he needed to protect his illegal activities, was cast on her. She had no memory of her time with Garry and Mary. A single painting of an effeminate man sleeping titled "Forgotten Portrait" struck a chord within her, but she quickly moved on from the painting and went home none the wiser save for a mysterious lighter that had appeared in her pocket. Ib found herself attached to the lighter for some reason or another and she secretly stored it in her room out of her parent's sight.

Two years passed without much incident and when Ib was 11 a strangely dressed man stepped out of the fireplace in her home to deliver some exciting news: Ib had been given a spot in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Ib's parents, though shocked at first, quickly interrogated the wizard on what this meant for their only beloved daughter. Ib only stared blankly at the fireplace: seeing the man step out of it had invoked some strange feelings within her, and she wondered how it would feel like to step out of a painting instead...

Whatever that strange feeling was, it was quickly shoved away from her attention as she and her parents started looking for her books, her robes, and her wand. Her English had improved over the past two years but there were still a lot of hurdles facing her as she nervously waited for the day the Hogwarts Express would take her to a brand new life.

Ib hasn't had any prior experiences with magic, save for her trip down art hell. However, she has a healthy does of creativity and she's very detailed with her work. This would probably help in subjects like Potions, where measurements must be as exact as possible but also allowing her room to experiment a little with her own ideas. Ib would also probably be good in Charms, a subject that would allow a little of her creativity to shine through. However, she would not be good in Defence against the Dark Arts as she dislikes any form of fighting, even in defence. Ib will also drift off in History of Magic, preferring to doodle all over her book instead of paying attention to class. Ib would find Transfiguration very interesting, although she would only be an average student due to how limited Transfiguration is in terms of creativity. She would also be a bad student in Flying, as she does not like physical activities that much.

[The second word is Dragon.]

How would your character fit in to each House?

Gryffindor:
Ib isn't very brave, but she is willing to be brave for the sake of protecting her friends and herself. In her original canon she's just 9, but she tangles with dangerous mannequins, dolls and a semi-psychotic painting intent on killing Garry. Instead of letting fear cripple her, she uses her fear to propel her onwards. However, Ib is not much of a leader; her passive nature prevents her from taking the lead, and she'd rather rely on someone else (eg Garry, and before she went psycho, Mary) than take control herself.

Hufflepuff:
In the game, each character is given a rose that represents their life. The colour of the rose also hints at the character's identity. Ib's rose in the game is a red rose, symbolizing love. This cannot be further from the truth: Ib is a girl who loves people and would do anything to protect them. She risks her life to rescue Garry, although she failed, she potentially risked herself being trapped in the art world for a chance to bring her friend home with her. She is loyal to her friends, and when push came to shove she demonstrated that she would never leave any of them behind if she could. She regrets that she had to kill Mary; they got along quite well as two little girls, and she's sure that in the right circumstances they could've been friends. This demonstrates a caring nature and a big heart, despite her little size.

Ravenclaw:
Ib is very astute; there are a lot of puzzles in the art museum that she had to solve, even before she met up with Garry and Mary. She has an eye for detail, developed due to her painting hobby, and she is quick to notice irregularities. She also thinks fast; she may not be very smart, and her English may need a lot more work, but she demonstrates flexibility and creativity even in bad situations. She's also creative and she's good at drawing, and she's got the Ravenclaw curiosity when it comes to topics she's interested in.

Slytherin:
Ib is not a really good fit for Slytherin; she is not particularly sly or cunning as she is too honest to engage in any form of manipulation. She would feel horrible if she lied to anyone. She doesn't demonstrate a lot of ambition either; she's happy enough to just get by. The one thing she may choose to excel in is art, but even than she's content to not be the best; she just likes art just because it's art.

RP Samples: here and here.

Art by Kouri