Bi-weekly challenge: Twenty facts
Twenty facts about your muse that we may not be aware of. (If this is a canon character it can be twenty facts based on your personal fancon for the muse)
1. Despite what Ron said in the books? Sirius did visit Andromeda, along with his friends - and Tonks has plenty of memories with the Marauders. Happy, bouncy, running, laughing memories. And ideas of ways to morph that she's always considered nothing short of brilliant.
2. You can't really tell an eight-years-old girl that her favourite cousin is a traitor and murderer. She just didn't believe that, and kept her childish persuasion that somebody must have had something wrong about it all. When she got into the Auror training program and she was firmly faced with the facts, the instructor managed to shake her faith by insisting it was an unthought-through persuasion and did not fit the facts. Even so, she was never firmly certain of his guilt. She blames herself for not at least trying to stir up a trial, when she knew the mechanisms for it; and always will blame herself for it. She could have saved him a little time in prison; she could have saved him a lot of time in hiding and isolation. One of the lessons she learned from it was to trust her hunches. Not to decide on them, but to explore and push through, even when they seem dead wrong.
3. Has an absolute loathing for Dementors. It's linked with what Sirius had to go through in prison; their effect on her is also linked with it - with time, the intensity of the way they affect her tones down, or maybe she learns how to handle it better; but after Sirius' death, they can most definitely break her down if she's not prepared for an encounter with them.
4. Absolutely hates having to stay away from something she can do well. Being kept away from most of the Order business while she was pregnant with Teddy had her chafing, even if she did understand the need to protect her baby; not being able to help her father... Made her feel responsible for his loss too. Made herself stop self-blaming for the sake of the baby, but that didn't make the fact that she did feel guilty go away.
5. For all her impulsiveness, bounciness, clumsiness, and energy, she does take her duties extremely to heart; and does do her share of thinking. Sometimes she makes random connections between facts which make her actions seem unjustified till she stops to explain them; but she's very, very rarely unable to explain 'why' she is doing something; not ever when her work is concerned. That doesn't mean she doesn't make mistakes (...); just that she can always retrace her reasoning if need be and explain why she's acted in a certain way in a tight situation. She suspects that is one of the reasons Mad-Eye did seem to enjoy bantering with teaching her so much.
6. Has very high levels of energy (of course, you couldn't have guessed that, right?) and when things are tight, tends to run herself very hard because she knows she can handle it. However, when she runs out, it's like seeing a marionette with the strings cut out, including curling up onto herself and, if things haven't been resolved much, crying, regardless of where she actually is. Over the years she's learned to control that, as in stopping somewhat before she reaches that point, even if it takes effort to extract herself from what she's been doing.
7. Would fight the world to help/protect somebody she cares for, whom she considers in need. However, she also knows that sometimes people need to fight their own battles. Even when that means she must stand back and feel helpless, she's not going to begrudge them those battles. Possibly because except for when pregnant, she's not allowed anybody to protect her from doing what she thinks right, when faced with the conscious, responsible choice of a thinking adult to do something unpleasant/dangerous even when she doesn't like it, she'll accept it.
8. Insists she has read every book her mun has, plus the stuff she's needed, etc. Heinlein in particular has had a lot of influence on her, as well as Richard Bach.
9. Very, very firmly believes that one is absolutely responsible for one's own actions - and since that applies to everybody, one is not responsible for another's actions (unless the other is a child too young to comprehend the consequences, or under the Imperius curse). She wouldn't ever say 'You made me do that! I didn't mean to!' - if she did it, she had her reasons to do it and it was a choice of hers.
10. Firmly believes that while infatuation/crush/fancying is something that just happens, loving another person is a choice. It may be an easy one or a difficult one, but the acceptance of another person to live so close as to feel almost under you skin? To care for them and not to judge? Isn't something that just 'happens'. It's something that you choose and that you need to work for, day after day. But it pays off. It's a choice she makes over and over again, because a LOT of people are worth loving and accepting and support and approval. And she's holding firm to those choices, first and most of all the one she made regarding her husband.
11. Is so used to being good at what she does, that when she performs less than what she expects of herself - in anything at all - she can get upset with herself. Which she absolutely attempts to get over before she gets back to those who knows her, and hide the vestiges of if possible. When she tries hard enough, she succeeds enough to pick up momentum enough to move beyond that being upset.
12. Despite her gift to change her appearance at will, Tonks is terrible at pretending; she just dislikes lying.
That said, when she takes up a disguise for a task/work assignment, she's perfect. After completing her training and starting actual work, and especially after being invited in the Order of the Phoenix, she's decided she cannot make mistakes - so she doesn't.
13. Overall, her work mode is very different than what she's like outside it. She's dispassionate, almost cold; focused on the task at hand but mindful of what else is going on ('Constant Vigilance'? You bet!), she's thinking very fast, and acting efficiently. In game, not all muses have seen that mode of operation; but it's likely that her colleagues at the Aurors office know it well.
That mode takes a toll on her later doubly if something happens that would normally get her sad/upset/angry. It's a price she's willing to pay for being good at what she does.
14. There are exactly two... persons she's not been able to forgive at all. Antonin Dolohov and Fenrir Greyback. At times it's bothering her, but she's not even willing to consider the effort. Those two hurt both Remus (in ways that have changed him for ever) and Teddy. She just doesn't see a point in trying to forgive them.
(Riddle she doesn't consider a real person, more of a powerful, dangerous, cunning... thing/entity, even if he's a father, etc. and that he did agree to the truce.)
15. Beneath the bouncy, bright laughing personality, she's a big ball of heart. That's why she can forgive so easily and completely; that's why she considers so many people to be her friends; that's why she can accept so completely and avoid personal judgement often enough. That's why she can be strong, because there's a lot to dig into until one reaches the core and strikes 'bad'.
And the core? Is genuine Black-branded madness. She's very, very rarely even touched it, and never had to dig into it, but it's there. Most probably that's where the actually energy comes from, filtered through the rest.
16. Had serious, serious doubts accepting she can be a good mother to Teddy in particular, since their false start; not with being so close to him in age, and so impulsive usually. Fortunately, things have improved - and even if it feels a bit odd that her son looks older than her, she still loves him as just that, her child, her firstborn.
She absolutely loves all her children.
17. Doesn't fully believe in 'babytalking' with children. If a child, especially her child, has reached the need to ask a question, then he's old enough to be given an answer. A truthful answer, even if at times it's not the full truth (she mostly will keep secret things that she'd keep a secret from adults too), and if it is at times phrased in a way to be more accessible to a child of that particular age.
I don't think any of the children got through a 'stork will come and bring us a baby' period.
18. Absolutely adores both her parents. Unreservedly.
19. Names: No, she doesn't hate the name Nymphadora. She just firmly believes that name is not hers. She's nowhere near as delicate, as elegant as it implies. Especially after returning, she's stopped asking her mum to call her it; Moody's bantering calling her that has sometimes produced the usual red-haired effect; at other times just return banter, and at times has been totally ignored when she's too focused into what's happening to be willing to waste energy on insisting on not being called that. The few times Remus calls her... no, she still doesn't like it, but as anything he calls her, the inflection and sound of his voice make it special.
Even years after her marriage, she introduces herself as 'Tonks'. Unless she has reason to present her official family name. Still, 'Dora' is a kind of private name for close friends and family to call her, so she may abstain from that too. It all depends on the situation. But the name that comes up automatically still is, and probably always will be, Tonks.
Oh, and when somebody says "Mrs. Lupin," her first reaction is to look around for Remus. It's a special name for her, even more so than 'Dora' or even 'love'.
20. Some quotes that she follows are,
"All you need is love."
"Let the sunshine in."
"The more you love, the more you can love - and the more intensely you love."
"If our friendship depends on things like space and time, then when we finally overcome space and time, we've destroyed our own brotherhood! But overcome space, and all we have left is Here. Overcome time, and all we have left is Now."
"And in the end
The Love you take
Is equal to the Love
You make."
Why yes, she was a flower-child. For all it was a muggle movement, it seeped through her skin somehow.
Cross-posted; Word count: 1803
1. Despite what Ron said in the books? Sirius did visit Andromeda, along with his friends - and Tonks has plenty of memories with the Marauders. Happy, bouncy, running, laughing memories. And ideas of ways to morph that she's always considered nothing short of brilliant.
2. You can't really tell an eight-years-old girl that her favourite cousin is a traitor and murderer. She just didn't believe that, and kept her childish persuasion that somebody must have had something wrong about it all. When she got into the Auror training program and she was firmly faced with the facts, the instructor managed to shake her faith by insisting it was an unthought-through persuasion and did not fit the facts. Even so, she was never firmly certain of his guilt. She blames herself for not at least trying to stir up a trial, when she knew the mechanisms for it; and always will blame herself for it. She could have saved him a little time in prison; she could have saved him a lot of time in hiding and isolation. One of the lessons she learned from it was to trust her hunches. Not to decide on them, but to explore and push through, even when they seem dead wrong.
3. Has an absolute loathing for Dementors. It's linked with what Sirius had to go through in prison; their effect on her is also linked with it - with time, the intensity of the way they affect her tones down, or maybe she learns how to handle it better; but after Sirius' death, they can most definitely break her down if she's not prepared for an encounter with them.
4. Absolutely hates having to stay away from something she can do well. Being kept away from most of the Order business while she was pregnant with Teddy had her chafing, even if she did understand the need to protect her baby; not being able to help her father... Made her feel responsible for his loss too. Made herself stop self-blaming for the sake of the baby, but that didn't make the fact that she did feel guilty go away.
5. For all her impulsiveness, bounciness, clumsiness, and energy, she does take her duties extremely to heart; and does do her share of thinking. Sometimes she makes random connections between facts which make her actions seem unjustified till she stops to explain them; but she's very, very rarely unable to explain 'why' she is doing something; not ever when her work is concerned. That doesn't mean she doesn't make mistakes (...); just that she can always retrace her reasoning if need be and explain why she's acted in a certain way in a tight situation. She suspects that is one of the reasons Mad-Eye did seem to enjoy bantering with teaching her so much.
6. Has very high levels of energy (of course, you couldn't have guessed that, right?) and when things are tight, tends to run herself very hard because she knows she can handle it. However, when she runs out, it's like seeing a marionette with the strings cut out, including curling up onto herself and, if things haven't been resolved much, crying, regardless of where she actually is. Over the years she's learned to control that, as in stopping somewhat before she reaches that point, even if it takes effort to extract herself from what she's been doing.
7. Would fight the world to help/protect somebody she cares for, whom she considers in need. However, she also knows that sometimes people need to fight their own battles. Even when that means she must stand back and feel helpless, she's not going to begrudge them those battles. Possibly because except for when pregnant, she's not allowed anybody to protect her from doing what she thinks right, when faced with the conscious, responsible choice of a thinking adult to do something unpleasant/dangerous even when she doesn't like it, she'll accept it.
8. Insists she has read every book her mun has, plus the stuff she's needed, etc. Heinlein in particular has had a lot of influence on her, as well as Richard Bach.
9. Very, very firmly believes that one is absolutely responsible for one's own actions - and since that applies to everybody, one is not responsible for another's actions (unless the other is a child too young to comprehend the consequences, or under the Imperius curse). She wouldn't ever say 'You made me do that! I didn't mean to!' - if she did it, she had her reasons to do it and it was a choice of hers.
10. Firmly believes that while infatuation/crush/fancying is something that just happens, loving another person is a choice. It may be an easy one or a difficult one, but the acceptance of another person to live so close as to feel almost under you skin? To care for them and not to judge? Isn't something that just 'happens'. It's something that you choose and that you need to work for, day after day. But it pays off. It's a choice she makes over and over again, because a LOT of people are worth loving and accepting and support and approval. And she's holding firm to those choices, first and most of all the one she made regarding her husband.
11. Is so used to being good at what she does, that when she performs less than what she expects of herself - in anything at all - she can get upset with herself. Which she absolutely attempts to get over before she gets back to those who knows her, and hide the vestiges of if possible. When she tries hard enough, she succeeds enough to pick up momentum enough to move beyond that being upset.
12. Despite her gift to change her appearance at will, Tonks is terrible at pretending; she just dislikes lying.
That said, when she takes up a disguise for a task/work assignment, she's perfect. After completing her training and starting actual work, and especially after being invited in the Order of the Phoenix, she's decided she cannot make mistakes - so she doesn't.
13. Overall, her work mode is very different than what she's like outside it. She's dispassionate, almost cold; focused on the task at hand but mindful of what else is going on ('Constant Vigilance'? You bet!), she's thinking very fast, and acting efficiently. In game, not all muses have seen that mode of operation; but it's likely that her colleagues at the Aurors office know it well.
That mode takes a toll on her later doubly if something happens that would normally get her sad/upset/angry. It's a price she's willing to pay for being good at what she does.
14. There are exactly two... persons she's not been able to forgive at all. Antonin Dolohov and Fenrir Greyback. At times it's bothering her, but she's not even willing to consider the effort. Those two hurt both Remus (in ways that have changed him for ever) and Teddy. She just doesn't see a point in trying to forgive them.
(Riddle she doesn't consider a real person, more of a powerful, dangerous, cunning... thing/entity, even if he's a father, etc. and that he did agree to the truce.)
15. Beneath the bouncy, bright laughing personality, she's a big ball of heart. That's why she can forgive so easily and completely; that's why she considers so many people to be her friends; that's why she can accept so completely and avoid personal judgement often enough. That's why she can be strong, because there's a lot to dig into until one reaches the core and strikes 'bad'.
And the core? Is genuine Black-branded madness. She's very, very rarely even touched it, and never had to dig into it, but it's there. Most probably that's where the actually energy comes from, filtered through the rest.
16. Had serious, serious doubts accepting she can be a good mother to Teddy in particular, since their false start; not with being so close to him in age, and so impulsive usually. Fortunately, things have improved - and even if it feels a bit odd that her son looks older than her, she still loves him as just that, her child, her firstborn.
She absolutely loves all her children.
17. Doesn't fully believe in 'babytalking' with children. If a child, especially her child, has reached the need to ask a question, then he's old enough to be given an answer. A truthful answer, even if at times it's not the full truth (she mostly will keep secret things that she'd keep a secret from adults too), and if it is at times phrased in a way to be more accessible to a child of that particular age.
I don't think any of the children got through a 'stork will come and bring us a baby' period.
18. Absolutely adores both her parents. Unreservedly.
19. Names: No, she doesn't hate the name Nymphadora. She just firmly believes that name is not hers. She's nowhere near as delicate, as elegant as it implies. Especially after returning, she's stopped asking her mum to call her it; Moody's bantering calling her that has sometimes produced the usual red-haired effect; at other times just return banter, and at times has been totally ignored when she's too focused into what's happening to be willing to waste energy on insisting on not being called that. The few times Remus calls her... no, she still doesn't like it, but as anything he calls her, the inflection and sound of his voice make it special.
Even years after her marriage, she introduces herself as 'Tonks'. Unless she has reason to present her official family name. Still, 'Dora' is a kind of private name for close friends and family to call her, so she may abstain from that too. It all depends on the situation. But the name that comes up automatically still is, and probably always will be, Tonks.
Oh, and when somebody says "Mrs. Lupin," her first reaction is to look around for Remus. It's a special name for her, even more so than 'Dora' or even 'love'.
20. Some quotes that she follows are,
"All you need is love."
"Let the sunshine in."
"The more you love, the more you can love - and the more intensely you love."
"If our friendship depends on things like space and time, then when we finally overcome space and time, we've destroyed our own brotherhood! But overcome space, and all we have left is Here. Overcome time, and all we have left is Now."
"And in the end
The Love you take
Is equal to the Love
You make."
Why yes, she was a flower-child. For all it was a muggle movement, it seeped through her skin somehow.
Cross-posted; Word count: 1803