#( ix. antoinette lafferty )

[theasteriae-arc]

FINN LAFFERTY.

FULL NAME: Finn Eoin Lafferty 

FACE CLAIM: Ben Rosenfield 

BIRTHDAY: January 1, 1996 

GENDER & PRONOUNS: Cis male & he / him 

ORIENTATION: Homosexual  

RESIDENCE: Oxford, England 

STATUS: Secondary; Available 

BIO & VERSES UNDER THE CUT. Trigger warning for child abandonment. 

In the early hours of New Year’s Day, 1996, Antoinette Lafferty stumbled out of The Village Inn in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway, after sinking one too many pints in the run up to midnight. She stood outside for a couple of minutes, then decided to take a walk up the lane in an attempt to clear her head. When she reached the gate of the old churchyard, some way down, she paused and stood there with her elbows propped up on the wooden posts. Wind stirred the leaves that made up the hedgerows on either side of the road. The storm of the previous night had abated somewhat, but it was still snowing, small white flakes drifting down from the leaden sky. The bells in the chapel over the hill tolled the hour—2 a.m.—and she imagined the nuns shuffling from their cells, through the draughty halls for Matins. When the sound faded away, the lanes were peaceful for a moment, and then Antoinette was surprised to hear a baby crying close by.

At first, she thought she was imagining it—was it the breeze, had she had simply had too much to drink? But no, there it was again. She’d know that sound anywhere, because she had two boys of her own at home, Daniel, who was four and loved dinosaurs, and Sean, who was not yet nine months old and still got her up two or three times a night. Poor lad was teething. Their grandparents were looking after both of them tonight, God bless and help them.

When the wail came again, she did not hesitate; she fumbled with the latch with numb fingers, then she was hurrying up the path and in between the graves, trying to find the child who was in such evident distress. Suddenly, Antoinette was very, very sober.

Wrapped in a thin blanket that was no match for the elements ( the snow was falling thicker and faster again now ) was a tiny boy whose eyes and nose were scrunched up tight against a mouth that was wide open and lungs that were screaming. How long had he been out here? Antoinette struggled out of her coat and wrapped him gently in it, careful to support his head and neck with his elbow. It couldn’t have been very long; he looked minutes, not even hours, old. There was still blood matted in his downy hair. Where was his mother? If she had had him here, just now, she couldn’t have got very far. She must be in a lot of pain, and very scared.

“Hello?” She shushed the baby, tried to comfort him as she searched. “Hello?” But there was nobody there. Conscious that she needed to get the baby out of the cold, fed, and into bed, she took him back to The Village Inn down the lane.

She called police and the local doctor ( the nearest hospital was more than an hour away and neither she, nor her husband, Adrian, were in any fit state to drive ) from the telephone from behind the bar, and not long later, the latter pronounced the boy healthy, aside from a slight wheeze in his chest that they would need to keep an eye on, but the former were never able to trace his mother.

The Laffertys fostered him while they conducted their investigation, then formally adopted him six months after its conclusion. They had him christened “Finn Eoin” and he fitted right into their family; Antoinette doted on him, Adrian too, and Daniel and Sean loved playing the role of big brother to him.

Finn was a quiet but intelligent child, inquisitive, interested in the way things worked, and always asking, “but why?” He took radio sets apart and rebuilt them, spent hours building complex structures out of Lego and Meccano. In later life, in his late teens, this curiosity takes him to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studies Maths and Physics under the tutelage of Professor James Moriarty (@diabolicaltendencies​), who, unbeknownst to Finn, is his biological father. Jim never reveals the extent of their true relationship ( although he has been aware of Finn’s existence for over ten years, and even, on one occasion, visited the Lafferty home when his son was out at school ), but nevertheless, he takes a special interest in the boy’s education. Finn takes a position as his research assistant in his third year at Trinity, and it’s thanks to Jim’s mentorship, not to mention the glowing reference that he provides as part of his application, that Finn is offered a place at Oriel College, Oxford, to study for his MSc in Mathematical and Theoretical Physics.

As of 2021, Finn is a second year PhD student in Mathematical and Theoretical Physics, again at Oriel College, Oxford. He lives in a shared house outside of college with fellow PhD candidates, Jakub, Sunita, and Eleanor, and his two rescue cats, Erwin and Minnie. When he’s not in the lab, the library, or studying at home, Finn enjoys stargazing and watching foreign language films with the aid of subtitles. He is currently learning Italian through a combination of evening classes and Duolingo.

VERSES.

EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD. | ALT. MAIN

( i. ) Kate leaves for England with Jim (@diabolicaltendencies​) as planned. Finn is raised by his biological parents. Otherwise, his life follows much the same pattern as above.

( ii. ) Kate leaves for England as planned, but with my Jim, instead of Gold’s. In this iteration of the verse, Finn and Xan are fostered by Tobias Bellamy (@omniishambles​​). This is only meant to be a temporary arrangement, while Jim and Kate got the network up and running, but one year turned into two, and two into five, and after the Fall, which takes place c. 2012, when the twins are sixteen, it was made official. Unlike Xan, who mourned the loss of their father very openly, Finn, who had been calling Toby “Dad” for years, was privately relieved.

YOU SHOULD SEE ME IN A CROWN. | FANTASY AU

Finn is born to the King and Queen of Dorchadas in the first year of the war. He is spirited away by agents of King Augustus of Sarahas when he is only a few days old and grows up a ward of the crown in the south. When he returns to Dorchadas, escorted by August (@diabolicaltendencies​), Bucky & the Witch Bros (@epiitaphs​ & @gunmetalgrey​), he is in his teens and the war is over. He eschews the castle in favour of the forest dwelling inhabited by his paternal uncle, Richard (@strangerinourmidst​). His mother’s people were nomads, druids, healers, who were driven out of Llandyr after the death of Queen Mary and persecuted by King Augustus when they crossed the border into Sarahas on their way to Jiaodao in the east. When Finn reaches adulthood, he founds a new tribe, and despite having no magical abilities of his own, save for being resistant to the magic of others, he leads his followers nobly and benevolently many years, listening to their divinations.

THE SUN WILL COME SHINING THROUGH. | HAPPY VERSE (MUSICIANS)

Finn is the son of Katherine Conway, a lawyer, and her husband, Richard (@strangerinourmidst​), a chef and author. They married young, when they were both only twenty, after Kate discovered she was pregnant with Richard’s brother’s child. N.B. In this verse, Finn and Xan are not twins; Finn is born five years later, when the marriage made out of desperation turns to true love. Kate goes into labour in the middle of a trial, but only makes her way to the hospital after she gets the defendant acquitted. Her son arrives six hours later, and is named “Finnegan”, by his father.