Ivy Langley

[Fenris]

Name: Ivy Vivienne Langley
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: 12th
School: George Hunter High School
Hobbies and Interests: Singing, violin, cheerleading, gossip, partying, drinking

Appearance: At 4'11" and 96 pounds, Ivy appears quite dainty, though her legs in particular are lightly muscled from years of cheerleading. She is pear-shaped, with a relatively small chest and waist and full hips and thighs. Her features are for the most part delicate and childlike; she has a very round face, wide, greenish-blue eyes, a small upturned nose, and full lips. Her skin varies wildly in color between seasons and depending on how much time she has spent outside, from quite pale in the winter to lightly bronzed in the summer. Her natural hair color similarly varies, from a light blonde in the summer to a very dirty blonde in winter, but she is currently bleaching and dyeing her hair a light reddish pink, and she obsessively takes care of her roots as they grow in. Her hair falls to her mid-back in loose waves and is generally kept parted on her left side.

Ivy's fashions change completely every few months; at the moment her interest is in fairy kei, a style characterized by pastel colors, lots of layers and lots of accessories. She regularly wears a full face of makeup, though she tends toward a natural look, with the exception of various bright shades of lipstick that she often coordinates to her outfits. She has two earlobe piercings in each ear and a cartilage piercing in her right ear; she trades out earrings with her outfits, though she constantly wears a diamond stud in her cartilage piercing.

On the day of the trip, Ivy was wearing a light blue slouchy beret pinned to her head with a matching pair of pink and purple bows, a pastel, loose-fitting Gloomy Bear t-shirt, an unbuttoned cropped light blue cardigan, a knee-length pastel pink circle skirt with light blue trim, lilac and light blue gradient leggings, and lilac Mary Janes, along with a number of miscellaneous bangles on both arms.

Biography: Ivy Langley was born on November 14th, 1999 to Christopher and Adrienne Langley. Christopher was the only child of John Langley, the head of the well-known and regarded Langley family and their accompanying real estate empire. Adrienne was fifteen years Christopher's junior and the reigning Miss Tennessee when the pair met. Their whirlwind romance drew media attention, and they were married within a month of meeting, moving into Christopher's Nashville mansion, where Ivy was born almost exactly nine months later. Christopher had Adrienne and Ivy moved into his slightly smaller Chattanooga home, citing their need for privacy and a quieter environment, while moving back and forth between Chattanooga and Nashville himself to take care of both his business and his family.

At first this arrangement worked out well; Adrienne and Ivy were well-cared for by a number of maids and nannies when Christopher was in Nashville, which was about half the time, up until Ivy was six months old and John Langley passed away. At this point the family business fell completely into Christopher's hands, and he began spending more and more time away from Chattanooga. Adrienne grew depressed, turning to alcohol to cope with the seeming loss of her husband. Christopher had already hired a nanny for Ivy, Maria, as well as a number of maids to take care of the house. As Adrienne drew more withdrawn, she spent less and less time caring for her daughter, and most parenting duties fell to Maria.

Ivy grew up surrounded by luxury, with everything she could possibly want well within reach. She delighted in her many toys and games, spending much of her time playing with her nanny and her maids. Her attitude as a child was shaped by both Maria and Christopher, each teaching her somewhat contradictory lessons. Maria tried to keep her grounded, despite Christopher's insistence that Ivy be allowed anything she wanted; she taught her surrogate daughter the importance of kindness, patience and humility. For her eighth birthday Maria bought Ivy a kitten, hoping that taking care of it (with her maids' help) would help the girl learn responsibility. Ivy named the kitten Lionshade, Lion for short, and fell in love with him immediately. She continues to care for him to this day.

Christopher's presence in his daughter's life was limited, as after his father died he only visited his Chattanooga home a couple of times a month, but when he did he spent every moment he could with Ivy. As his only child, Christopher wanted to prepare Ivy for a future as the head of the Langley family business, and in the process he impressed upon her the same values that his father had instilled in him- the importance of taking charge, the importance of being selfish, and, in particular, the idea that she, by virtue of her birth, was superior to other people. She tacitly accepted that idea, but it would not really come to define her for a number of years.

Considering her unusual upbringing, Ivy entered elementary school surprisingly well-adjusted. She was a sociable child and quick to make friends, if a bit bossy and self-centered. As she had no friends among her peers and in fact rarely left her home before she started school, she grew very attached to her closest friends and remained extremely loyal to and protective of them for years. Adrienne grew more and more distant over the years as she drank more and eventually developed an addiction to prescription drugs as well, and while Ivy didn't understand what was happening to her mother, Maria more than made up for Adrienne's shortcomings in her eyes, and over time she cared less and less about Adrienne.

Ivy also began playing the violin during this time, at her father's insistence, as he wanted her to be well-rounded. She quickly developed a passion for music, which only deepened when she realized how much she enjoyed singing along with playing. While she enjoyed playing the violin, singing was her real passion, and she joined her Pentecostal church's choir as soon as she was able. To this day it's one of her favorite activities, and one of the only things really tying her to her church.

Ivy's social life was fairly uneventful through elementary school up until junior high, when she began dating one of her closest friends, Gaelan Meloy. He broke up with her primarily due to the sudden realization Ivy's ignorance of her own privilege. This was a catalyst for a major and perhaps inevitable change in Ivy, as she became for the first time hyper aware of just how different she was from other people, a lesson she had never quite internalized as taught by her father. Gaelan had been one of the most important people in her life, and losing him was a major blow, enough to make her totally reevaluate herself. At first, she grew incredibly guilty, wanting nothing more than to discard her identity as a Langley and be more like her peers. She believed at the time that if her identity could push someone so important away from her, it couldn't be something worth having pride in.

Over the course of a couple of months, however, that guilt gave way to anger. She had been taught, after all, to be proud of her name and her position, and it was only now that she realized why. If she was to be unfairly persecuted for her status and position, she decided, even by people she trusted, that was proof that her father had been right, and that others truly were lesser than her. Her attitude shifted rapidly, from the cheerful and caring child she had been into a bitter and manipulative adolescent. Some of that guilt, however, stayed with her, and it formed the beginnings of what would become a dangerous drinking habit. Her mother always had plenty of wine in the house, and it was quite easy for her to sneak some when Maria wasn't paying attention. What started as an occasional indulgence when Ivy was in junior high evolved into a regular habit in high school, to a degree bordering on actual dependency.

As Ivy got older, the Langley family business began to stabilize in the wake of John Langley's death, and Christopher was able to spend more time at home with his daughter, though he still spent most of his time away. He ignored his wife almost completely, perfectly fine with allowing her to languish in her alcoholism and drug addiction. He was far more interested in teaching his daughter in bits and pieces about the importance of the Langley family and her place in it, and in her future as the eventual head of the family business. As a teen Ivy hung on her father's every word, accepting without question his advice about manipulating others and doing whatever it took to stay on top herself. She also grew to resent Adrienne. Up until this point she mostly ignored her birth mother, outside of occasional intoxicated interactions where Adrienne would suddenly try to speak to or embrace her. But as she learned from her father, her mother was weak and worthy of nothing more than disdain, something Ivy took to heart. As for her substitute mother, Christopher had Maria fired, believing her influence to have made Ivy weaker and believing Ivy, at 14, to be old enough to care for herself. This had the secondary effect of leaving Ivy with almost no regular supervision, leaving her to her own devices whenever Christopher was out of town.

Ivy began high school with a brand new attitude, intent on making the place her own and not above using her family's wealth and power to do it. While she has remained close with few of her friends from childhood, she quickly established herself into George Hunter's social scene and made herself a valuable person to know. She's very aware that many if not most of her friendships are based on convenience and social standing rather than actual fondness, but she doesn't much care. She takes advantage of her family situation and lack of oversight by throwing lavish house parties on a fairly regular basis, further cementing her social status. Ivy has notoriously been a bit of a flirt since starting high school, hooking up with and dating a succession of boys, partially due to a constant need for validation and partially due to her desire for a partner who will look good next to her.

Ivy had some interest in fashion from an early age, but in high school, when she had more freedom and social clout, she began to really explore that interest. She used her wealth to regularly completely replace her wardrobe, throwing herself into completely new and interesting styles every few months. While she played it relatively safe as a freshman, once she was positioned such that she was unlikely to be kicked off her social pedestal for wearing odd clothes, she began to pick up on some unusual subculture and street styles, with brief flirtations with steampunk, lolita and pastel goth, among many others. She has dyed her hair a number of colors over the years to match her many styles. Ivy will try any style once, but she has a notable preference for pastels and tends to default to them.

Academically Ivy does fairly well with a minimum amount of effort, skating by on her natural ability and good test-taking skill to maintain a steady high-B to low-A average. She spends little time studying, preferring to spend her time socializing and in her extracurriculars. Cheerleading wasn't something Ivy had any particular interest in before high school, but it seemed like an obvious social in, and Ivy wanted every social advantage she could get. Over the years she has come to actually enjoy cheerleading, though she still cares more about the social clout and proximity to jocks it brings than the sport itself. Her true passion is still her violin and especially her singing, and she is in both the school choir and the school band. She's quite defensive of these hobbies and of her fellow musicians, and will willingly defend them from other popular kids if they pick on them.

At home Ivy's needs are mostly taken care of by the maids still in the house's employ. With Maria no longer present and Adrienne mostly incapacitated, she has no real parental figure; the maids only interact with her as much as is absolutely necessary and don't take interest in her personally for fear of being admonished or fired by Christopher. The maids keep the house stocked with red wine for Adrienne, which Ivy helps herself to with no resistance. When her father is home, however, Ivy is significantly more constrained in her actions. Christopher has high expectations for Ivy's behavior, and she needs to be home early whenever he's home, with no socializing allowed. She keeps her drinking a secret from him, though she continues to drink in secret when he is home. Ivy places a lot of importance on pleasing and impressing her father, and goes to great lengths to prove to him that she is worthwhile. Though she is truly passionate about singing and wishes she could pursue that after high school, for the sake of her father's approval she plans to follow his instructions and attend Duke's Fuqua School of Business, as he did, before returning to work for the family business.

Ivy is in a comfortable social position at George Hunter, where she has placed herself in direct social opposition to her erstwhile friend and ex-boyfriend, Gaelan. She deals in gossip, doing her best to learn as many secrets about as many people as possible and hoarding them until they're useful, using them to control others. Though she doesn't go out of her way to bully others, as she sees no point in bothering people with no social value to her, Ivy won't hesitate to spread interesting gossip no matter who it might hurt, and has a biting comment in store for anyone she considers beneath her whom she's forced to interact with. This, along with her feud with Gaelan and by extension his large group of friends, has earned Ivy many enemies at school.

Ivy's closest friends are also her oldest friends, those she's known from childhood, as they are the only people she truly trusts. She also tends to be more charitable toward people she considers interesting or valuable enough to befriend but not powerful enough to hurt her socially. She assumes that most people who try to get close to her are attempting to use her popularity, her status or her money, and she uses others in return. Though she's known to drink a lot, very few people know how bad her alcohol problem is, as she trusts very few people enough to be vulnerable around them. Ivy does her best to protect her own image, while using her position to control how others see and are seen.

Advantages: Ivy's social position means she has many friends and acquaintances. She is quite manipulative and good at controlling others. She is known to be very loyal to a select group of people, who are likely to be loyal to her in return. She is in good physical shape from years of cheerleading.
Disadvantages: Ivy's manipulative nature is well known to her peers. She has hurt many people and made many enemies at George Hunter. She is physically very small and could be easily overpowered by one of her larger classmates.