#˗ˏˋ introduction ⟶ ❛ maribel sawyer ❜

[guiltswept]

( ella purnell. demi woman. she/they. ) - let me introduce you to a staff member of the eversley family, maribel sawyer, who is here at the eversley estate working as a housekeeper in the east wing. they are twenty-seven and are known as the demure around the estate because they are altruistic, overwrought, and furtive. when you get to know them, you think about a fox escaping the hounds in dark-branched woods, jaw bloodied and stained with what is not its own; the wandering, stand-still eyes in a hallway lined with portraits—all staring, all watching, all knowing—but you can only wonder why they’d choose to work for the eversley family. this character is penned by: ( james, 25, est, they/them. )

content warning for... disordered eating, anxiety, dysfunctional family dynamics throughout.

profile.

full name — maribel ottoline sawyer.

nickname(s) — mari; little mouse, mouse ( rare ).

place of birth — duluth, minnesota, us.

date of birth & age — june 4th, 1997. twenty7.

gender / pronouns — demi woman, she/they.

sexuality — bisexual.

occupation — housekeeper. investigative journalist.

astrology — gemini sun / gemini moon / gemini rising.

labels — the demure ( others considered: the fragile butterfly / the sheep / the chameleon / the bibliophile / the quiescent / the ingenue / the obsequious ).

residence — eversley estate; staff quarters ( previous residence: south london ).

traits — altruistic, benignant, solicitous, overwrought, mousy, acquiescent, malleable, amenable, vulnerable, guileful, furtive, underhanded, conspiratorial, shrewd, observant.

interests — mary janes and patterned tights; oversized sweaters and earth - toned patterns. handwritten letters, the smell of fresh ink; typewriters. vinyl records and players; the smell of an antique shop. perfecting the handwriting of others. non - fiction, and classic novels. staying organized. sweeping her hair into a ponytail at all times. riddles, mysteries; solving problems, but never her own. computer science; hacking into databases. keeping a near - nonexistent internet presence. doing what she thinks is right - hoping that what she's doing is right. pressing flowers. encryptions.

aversions — reminders of her family. feeling like someone is constantly on her heels. creaky floorboards. tripping over herself ( happens far too often ). eye contact. drinking too much. saying no. being caught in her own web of lies. cold tea. egomaniacs ( unfortunately surrounded by them ). others thinking she's incapable, a pushover, etc. knowing for a fact that she is, in deed, a pushover. modern homes. anything that'll cost her too much money; spending money. the sight of blood. swearing ( at least in front of others ). failure.

most played — duvet by bôa.

notable features — a prominent jaw and bush baby eyes beneath an olive complexion; blunt bangs that are undoubtedly done without help, expression hopelessly doll - like.

general disposition — a restlessness that threads through the veins; always looking over a shoulder, never able to sit still.

character study — willow rosenberg ( buffy the vampire slayer ) & lexie grey ( grey's anatomy ) & nancy drew ( nancy drew ) & marta cabrera ( knives out ).

background & events.

the sawyers were never anything extraordinary: a militant air force patriarch and a stay at home matriarch with a history of at - home workout videos, straight to vcr. maribel was born between a broadway star and a football prodigy; with little room to shine for herself. it was a strict upbringing; early curfew, chores before all else, no outings on weekends and sunday family dinners, perfect grades. maribel still thinks of her mother's keto - friendly green bean casserole with terror akin to meeting a bear in a fistfight.

despite being one of three, it was a quiet, lonely childhood for maribel. they moved often, from military base to military base, from country to country; maribel's friends never kept in touch, and at some point she had stopped trying. her siblings always stood out, always had somewhere to turn to whether it were theater or sports. but she kept her nose in a book; took a knack to solving puzzles, to putting together pieces. crosswords to riddles, to magic tricks and whodunnits. she couldn't turn to her parents - as far as they were concerned, it was maribel who didn't try hard enough.

disordered eating mention / anxiety; the criticism was endless; her father thought her soft and impractical, too stuck in her head, and her mother instilled in them the same food insecurities that had haunted her in her childhood like a family heirloom. there was always something she could be doing better; something she wasn't doing right. maribel walked around her home on constant eggshells. as she grew older, her anxiety grew with her.

after years of forging permission slip signatures and teaching herself coding ( they were always fascinated with encryptions, how to create them and how to break them ) - word got out around one of her private schools of her "talents" and she quickly became a tool under the guise of friendship. too meek to say no, maribel always complied with her friends' wishes - from changed grades in the school system, to forged doctor's notes and hacked social medias. when it was all discovered; it was her who took the blame, who wound up expelled.

their parents iced them out after that; if they were cold before, they were freezing then. radio silence in her own home. maribel was homeschooled after the incident, picking up jobs in - between lessons and moving out once they turned eighteen. it was a mutual decision, more or less; it was a rule in their household, and maribel couldn't wait to leave them - as awful as she felt about it. when her father was stationed back to the states, maribel chose to stay in the uk, where she attended university.

maribel pursued journalism, then computer science, then journalism again. picked up three jobs at any given time and worked and worked and worked until she'd overdone it and had to take a prolonged mental health break. this cycle repeated itself three more times before maribel finally graduated, years later, with a degree in journalism and enough computer science classes that she might've well gotten the degree for that too. she was picked up by a semi - big newspaper and begun writing articles under a pseudonym, where they quickly gained interest. despite being on the verge of a constant mental breakdown; maribel's research was always thorough, unbiased yet passionate - like she had ways of getting behind the scenes.

the eversleys caught her attention four years ago. three years ago, she was fired from the newspaper due to her obsession with the family and their supposedly legal business. two years ago, maribel got hired at the estate after months of scrubbing any presence of herself from the internet.

introspection & details.

before her journalist job ( and her current job ); maribel could not keep a job to save her life. she's been a waitress, a receptionist, a bartender, a tutor, a very much unlicensed private eye working "under the table", a phone sex operator, retail. had a half - day stint in construction before they realized she couldn't operate a forklift without almost running someone over. maribel is very good at what she's good at, and very bad at what she's not. there is little to no in between.

knows a handful, maybe two, of languages due to her family moving often. she's stronger in some languages than others.

there's not much use for forgery these days, but maribel isn't beyond it. has a strong moral system, and that's strictly what she thinks is right. will do "bad things" in order to accomplish "good things". if chaotic lawful was a thing, they would be it. scarily proficient with a computer.

terrible, terrible liar when it comes to little white lies, the things that don't hurt. is better at lying when it's long term; they often embellish details of their childhood, to make them seem not as lonely.

maribel has a problem with telling people no; has been called a pushover before, a doormat. is, unfortunately, the type of person to drop everything to help someone if they ask, even if it's unimportant to them. endlessly kind, and has an issue of seeing the good in everyone. makes excuses for others often.

desperately wants kinship, to the point where she will shift parts of her personality and interests to better suit whoever she's talking to. sometimes, maribel isn't sure of who she is outside of what she performs for others. a people pleaser.

comes off as innocent because she rarely swears, smokes, drinks ( though, when she does drink they become a massive flirt; a massive 180 degree shift in their personality ). hates being infantilized because of these facts, but will often give into doing any of them when challenged.

she's a naturally anxious person, just evident in her... existence. constantly fidgeting, shifting; rambles when nervous, which is just about all the time. has been called variants of mousy, for a multitude of reasons. has a bad case of constantly trembling, or shaking. it takes her time to warm up to people, to become used to them.

being hyperaware of her surroundings at all times, and her general insecure nature has allowed her to become decently perceptive. she notices when people are off, when things in general aren't what they seem. her concern is always genuine, but more often than not she's seeking answers.

can be contradicting at times; when it comes to her career, what she came to the estate for - maribel knows what she wants, what her goals are, how she wants to accomplish them and how to go about them. but externally, she just comes off as someone too afraid to speak up for herself, who can't bring herself to say anything negative about anyone.

maribel is so. goddamn clumsy it's a miracle she hasn't been fired from the estate yet. tries her hardest not to break anything, but she's extremely jumpy. is constantly bumping into people, furniture, walls and doors, etc.

lover of vintage, of secondhand, of antiques. mostly likes things she can afford, which isn't a lot. they're good at not spending money on themselves, even though she really wants to. her wardrobe is full of thrifted finds, and she wears a ponytail almost exclusively.