PLAYER STUFF
Name: Emely
Pronoun: She
Email address: ringcampana@gmail.com
Preferred contact: Plurk: CalledVertigo
Other characters: The Disicple (Homestuck)


CHARACTER STUFF
Name: Matilda Wormwood
Aliases: N/A
Canon: Matilda by Roald Dahl
Role: Vigilante
Species: Human
Gender: Female
Age: 6
Appearance: The cutie that is Mara Wilson.

Origin story: CW: Warnings for mentions of child abuse

Matilda's background will remain largely as it is in canon. Matilda was a girl born to Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood--two parents who didn't hold book learning in particularly high esteem. Which is a shame, because even from just a couple months Matilda was already capable of reading and writing. Her father was a used car salesman who would buy illegal parts and used various tricks to make a car seem much better than it actually was. Her mother was a bingo player who was much more concerned with appearances than education.

Neither of these two cared much for Matilda, doting instead on their son. She was often left alone leaving Matilda to learn how to fend for herself from a very early age. Those times her parents were around, she was typically either ignored, degraded, and even sometimes emotionally abused. Around the age of three she began to visit the local library and that's where she would spend most of her days. Having this haven to escape to was what kept Matilda going those days. Books became her refuge, and she loved using them to escape to great and fantastical worlds. Her parents would barely even acknowledge her absence unless there was a package of illegal parts on their doorstep that she was suppose to bring in.

It was after one of these punishments that her father said the words that placed a certain mentality in Matilda's head. "When a person does something wrong, that person must be punished." Likely her father meant 'child', but to Matilda this meant that children could punish adults as well. From then on whenever she saw her father do something she consider unjust(which was often, considering his line of work) she would punish him--of course, most of these punishments were mild and might be considered more pranks than punishments, but he was still her father and despite everything she loved him.

When she turned six Matilda began attending Crunchem Hall Primary Elementary School. While she loved getting the chance to go to a school she was not being challenged in her grade. Even worse, this was when she met the headmistress, a woman by the name of Miss. Trunchbull who even the teachers feared. She was a harsh, militant woman who used corporal punishment and detested children. She was a woman who would easily resort to force and violence on both teachers and children--she even had a tiny, cramped, closet where the walls were full of long nails and shards of glass where she would shove people in as punishment. Everyone was to frightened of her wrath to ever speak up on what she was doing.

Once more Matilda found herself and others around her at the end of unfair (and in this case, cruel) punishments. As with her father, and some others before, Matilda had decided to take things into her own hands. It was during one of these moments that she was dealing out her vigilante justice that Matilda discovered her powers. Once she did she began to train herself in order to put an end to Trunchbull's hold over the other students and teachers. With them, and rounding up the other children of the school to her cause, she was able to strike enough fear of 'ghosts' to drive Trunchbull out of her home and school.

Things looked like they might begin to look up for her at school, but sadly before Matilda could experience benefits of the changes occurring she returned home to see that her family had up and left without her. Her father's illegal business had finally caught up to him, and they had left the country as quickly as possible to avoid being arrested.

Tired of having to deal with adults treating her so terribly, instead of going to authorities, Matilda decided to make it on her own.

Personality: *Matilda's personality is derived from all her canons: book, movie, musical.

Matilda, on the surface, is a quiet girl who tends to keep to herself. She isn't one who talks much,and is incredibly reserved for the most part. Despite her silent nature it is also incredibly obvious that she is very intelligent. Even when she was but a babe, Matilda was already observing the world around her and learning, whether it be literature, mathematics, or science. It was all so fascinating to her and she taught herself much of what she knows through obsessive reading. Even before she had started school, she had already read most of the books in the nearby libraries. Since beginning to live on her own, she is always going from book store to book store, library to library. The knowledge her mind possesses could rival many adults.

For all the things that Matilda has faced in her young life she is not a bitter person. She is a headstrong girl who despite using books as a form of escapism, still believed in making her own way. After all, that is what she has largely done her entire life. Even if Matilda has an innate distrust of all adults, she still is a very caring person towards everyone around her. Admittedly, more so towards other children but if a person is in need of help, she will give it unless they prove themselves to be a 'bad' person.

Which leads us to Matilda rather screwed version of justice. Matilda has a reputation as a trouble maker. The reason for this being because of a few simple words her father once spoke to her "When a person does something bad, that person must be punished." Her father meant to say child, but with that slip up he ingrained in Matilda a certain mindset. Ever since then Matilda has taken it upon herself to see justice served. When she sees a wrong doing, she is out there to fix it. She is very good at covering her tracks however, but unfortunately does not always know her boundaries. She is very much a vigilante in this regard and sometimes tends to jump the gun on things, not fully taking the time to make sure she understands the situation.

While mature, Matilda's youth still comes through in how impressionable she can be. What people say sticks with her, and still have a large influence in how she acts whether she realizes it or not. While she has come to be wary of adults she still is pretty gullible as she instinctively tends to take people at face value. Other people's actions and motivations are often beyond her and she has a tendency to see the world in black and white.

Differences from canon: An important thing to remember about all three canons of Matilda is that they are directed towards children. Because of that a lot of the things present in it are toned down, or brushed away quickly, but the fact is that there is quite a lot of violence towards children (and some adults) in it.

Yet those things can't be so easily swept aside in roleplay and I have tried to incorporate it as gracefully as possible. Matilda can still be gullible but she isn't exactly naive. Particularly when you take into account what she has experienced, and some of the reading material she has been canonly stated to have read (such as Animal Farm by George Orwell, which for a child of six is pretty hefty) she definitely is much more aware of the world she lives in than might be expected.

Overall I'm trying to avoided having her be jaded since that would take away from a large part of her personality which is an incredibly headstrong, determined girl, and have the effects of such treatment and knowledge come instead in a general dislike of adults. Miss Honey was not a figure in her life to counteract this.

Outside of that I'm taking some liberties with her power. In the movie and musical there were no limits ever said on her power (though we never really saw them challenged since she stuck to doing low key things with them). In the book in the end, once she began to actually be mentally challenged she was unable to use them anymore. I'm going with making them very powerful, and only growing as her intellect does. Not using them or not feeding her mind in any way often gives her incredible migraines and makes it likely that her powers will act up on her own.

Power level: B/A. More B because lol 6 year old.
Powers: Genius level intellect, very powerful telekinetic abilities.
Team affiliation: None

First person sample: (Watch Post set before her family disappeared).

How did everyone who possesses powers here come to learn of them? Are they something genetic, or is it possible that some people are just born with them with no identifiable cause?

From what I've heard and read it really seems to be all over the board but I do not know how reliable my reading material is. I've never really had much cause to research it before. My family hasn't been particularly helpful with helping me figure out how all this works nor have they tried to find anyone who can give me some sort of direction.

[Partly because Matilda had not told them about her powers, but she already knows what their reactions might be.]

I've read up on the Trailblazers, but I don't qualify for them. Are there any organizations for people who are younger than that age group?



Prose sample: Here