#charlotte verse: the recovery

[colemillerg]

Probably the most unique thing about me is that I am a transgender male (FTM). While it’s extremely unique, it doesn’t define who I am. I am simply a man who was born in the wrong body and was assigned female at birth. No matter what you believe at the end of the day, my journey in uncovering Cole is a choice I am happy and at peace with. I am a good son, brother, friend, and uncle who contributes to the world around me. My journey is not your journey and you aren’t able to judge my path without first walking in my shoes. Sorry, not sorry. So here are some questions I get about being transgender I thought I would address:

Did you alway know you’re a boy?

Yes. From as early on as I can remember, I felt like a boy trapped in a female body. I liked male toys, wanted to look like a boy, behaved as a stereotypical little boy and didn’t understand how I was different from my male cousin Zach who was just a little younger than I. I have a sister who is 4 years older than me and I have never identified with being female the way she has. There was just something “off”. Growing up, it was made very clear to me that I was in the wrong for behaving like a boy or wanting to look like a boy. It was so engrained in me that this was wrong, I began to hide those parts of me.

What was it like to come out?

Well first and foremost, I didn’t come out as transgender right off the bat. I came out as a lesbian. Which to me was a huge step but a smaller step than declaring that I was transgender. Coming out was a nightmare. There’s no other way to describe it. I was secretly dating my first girlfriend and ex-fiancé Kim. She made me so incredibly happy that I knew if I was going to have a future with her it would require me to be open about her and not hide her in the shadows. I decided one day to tell my sister first. She listened to me on the phone and at the time seemed to recognize that this was something very difficult for me to admit. Then came my mother. I came home one day to my mother who confronted me about alcohol my stepfather had found in my room. There was a strict NO ALCOHOL policy in my house because my stepdad is a recovered alcoholic. Why he was in my room, I will never know. But I was 25 years old and like most young people my age, rebelling and drinking wasn’t a crazy idea. My mother was so angry with me she said some things to me that I never thought my mother would utter. I felt like at this point I was going to burst if I didn’t just confess to her that I was in a relationship with the girl she assumed to just be my friend. Bad timing? Probably. But I felt so betrayed by my mother that I thought why the hell not? She was disgusted and heartbroken with what I told her. She allowed me to continue to live with her but under numerous restrictions including taking on all financial responsibility. I lived with my mother and stepfather for a short period longer and it was horrific. My mother made it a nightmare. To just give you a sample, she took a stack of index cards and on each index card wrote a question or Bible verse to which she expected a response. I was to read and respond to her notes. She would either respond with disgusting/degrading insults, Bible verses, or leave it blank. I still have the index cards because I forgive but never forget. One day I finally broke and while she wasn’t home, I gathered as much as could fit in a laundry basket and I moved out. I had nowhere to go except my place of work (a small coffee shop). Long story short, I was homeless until a customer of mine offered that I could live in her attic. So with no heat or air and only a mattress on a box spring, I moved into a tiny house’s attic in the ghetto.

Have I had any surgeries?

I had top surgery January of 2023. Best decision ever! Surgery was performed by Dr. Hope Sherie in Charlotte, NC. It was an easy surgery and fairly easy recovery. I’ll include pics below.

Have I received hate for transitioning?

Absolutely. If not from my own family and others that I knew personally, coworkers at one point made my life a living Hell. I’ve had trash thrown at me, had bathroom signs changed at work to exclude me, been told I’m going to Hell and that no wonder my mother disowned me, had faggot written on my truck, been sexually harassed, and as of 2020 I was attacked and raped by a stranger. That is a whole different post for another time.

Do I regret transitioning?

Transitioning allowed me to become my true self. No I don’t regret it.

[ahopkins1965]

James 3:14-16 Commentary By Anthony Joseph Hopkins

James 3:14-16 Commentary

James 3:14-16 says: However, is you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, then stop bragging and living in the ways that deny the truth.

Next, all of this means that if we disclose selfish ambitions inside of our hearts, then the Lord God will be disappointed.  For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom, but of the world.

Moreover, I want to say that I used to be just like what the Bible verses are talking about.  I used to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana for a total of 18 years.

 This means that from the age of 7 years old until I turned 25 years old, I was inside of the streets of Dayton, Ohio and doing the things that were of the world.  Just like Theologians used to say that the Lust of the Flesh; The Lust of the Eyes, and; The pride of Life is of the world.  I know that this is a plan of action that is utilized by Satan Himself.

However, it affects man spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, and psychologically as well. I know for me, it caused me to disrespect all of my authority figures, and act the fool at school.

 I started using vulgarity at an early age as well.  I have changed a whole lot since 1990.  I know that I read the Bible, say my prayers each day and night.  I also read the Bible a whole lot.  I am still learning all about the Bible and how to comply with God Himself.  Frankly, I have to learn how to officially stop using vulgarity for good.  I ask God to always forgive me; whenever I commit a sin of this magnitude.

In Addition, I have to stop arguing with other people because it is not worth it.  What I am doing right now, is taking a walk away from my environment.  I learned this during my anger management classes.  At least, it keeps me out of trouble.  It also keeps me away from the Criminal Justice System. 

Meanwhile, I have been reading and studying Bible verses like this so that I can learn how to watch the things that come out of my mouth.  My AA Sponsor stated to me that I have to start all over doing the 12 Steps of AA Recovery.

 I am starting all over because things have changed whenever it comes to the curriculum of the self-help programs.  I know that there are new things that I have to write down when it comes to working the 12 Steps.  I have to write down a powerless list, accountability list, and responsibilities list as well.

I am responsible for my AA Recovery.  I know that my AA Sponsor is responsible for telling me the things that are feasible in the 12 Steps.  I am responsible for listening and learning these things.

Furthermore, I am supposed to help those who are suffering from alcoholism and other drugs.  I know that every time I read Galatians 6:1 it convicts me.  What this Bible verse is saying that a spiritual person always has to help those who are committing sin.  I also have to be careful myself.

The Bible itself is a manual of rules, regulations, and precepts when it comes to governing human behavior.  I know that things have changed for me during the last 14 years.

 I will admit that I was court ordered to move back to Dayton, Ohio because I was non-compliance for an extended period of time.  Therefore, from 2010-the present, I was ordered to take certain medications for my behavior.  The Mecklenburg County Courts sent me back home because I was evicted out my residence three times in one year.

I know that this is not a laughing matter, but a person’s behavior can and will get you into trouble.  I know that I have to resolve all of my active issues before I pass away.  I have to make direct amends with my family members and friends to whom I have offended in the past.

I also know that I have to pay my student loans debt of $28,000 dollars in interest from my student loans while I was a student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

 I was enrolled in my classes in August of 2003.  I had other student loans to pay in another state.  I have to pay a whole lot of money to all of my creditors.  During that time, I was online at my job.  I was solely responsible for crashing computers by looking at porn online.  By doing so, I ended up causing a Worm Virus that contaminated the hard drive of the computers.

Even though, I was responsible for doing a lot of damage to the computers each time that I used them.  I ended up losing my job because of my behavior.  The University of North Carolina at Charlotte classified me as a threat to the public safety of the staff and student body of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte Campus Community as of Wednesday April 9, 2009.  I was terminated from my job.

I know that this is something that I am supposed to keep to myself.  It even affects me whenever I am applying for jobs anywhere in the United States.  I am also a victim of age discrimination as well.  There are employers who will not hire me because I have to be certified in certain things.

Finally, I want to inform all of you that I am doing a lot better right now.  I know that things have changed for me during the past 14 years.  I am putting things into perspective right now.

 I have been clean and sober for 34 years now.  I have been trying to still pay on my student loans.  I know that every time I apply for a job of any kind, they will be asking for a reference from my previous employers.  I have to be transparent by saying that this is a very serious matter.

In Conclusion, I want to inform all of you that I know how to survive in any city that I have lived in during the past 34 years.  I know that my life is really what I am supposed to make of it.

 My biggest problem is that, I am not able to obtain any job because of my past.  I have changed my overall behavior because I am going through Continued Commitment because of my behavior.  I know that there are people who are trying to compromise my information and use it against me.

These are the people who have scammed me out of money in the past.  This includes a woman to whom that I was involved in a relationship with from September of 1989 to September of 1990.

 I was responsible for giving her money just to satisfy her drug appetite. During a four-month period, I had given her money to do whatever she wanted because I was working two jobs during the time from 1989 through 1990. I am not going to mention her name but there are many people who know who I am talking about.

I have managed to pay my rent and other bills right now because I am no longer involved in any online relationships.  I know that I am solely responsible for engaging in reckless behavior by giving people money that I did not know.  This had taken place from Friday March 13, 2008 through February 28, 2010.  I have given several people a total of $16,977 dollars in Western Union Funds.  I had given a young lady a vast majority of the money.  I had given her a total of $8,865 dollars in Western Union Funds. 

I also had given a young lady some money from September 1, 2016 through July 2, 2017.  I was responsible for giving her a total of $1,550 dollars in Western Union Funds because she stated that she was from Accra, Ghana in Africa.  I want to inform all of you that I used to play the fool myself for a number of years. 

In Summary, I want to inform all of you that this is all my fault and no one else.  I will admit that I felt so bad that I have to start all over in the 12 Steps of AA.  I know that I am taking entirely too much medication for a number of ailments.  To put things into perspective, I am responsible for my own actions.

 I have made a number of mistakes in the past.  Right now, I am paying all of my bills first and foremost.  I am also changing everything in my personal life.

 I know that I have been responsible for making changes in my life because I am staying out of trouble.  I no longer have a desire to drink alcohol and beer.  I no longer have a desire to smoke Crack Cocaine and Marijuana Cigarettes.  Thank You Lord Jesus for saving me from myself.

[leadingpublicadjusters]

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Hiring a public adjuster who knows the rules can work for the best. Getting in touch with a professional well-versed in hurricane damage recovery in Key West and Charlotte County, FL, to obtain the required amount after filing the claim is essential.

Sure, the insured individual (s) may not have significant knowledge about what is covered and what is not by hurricane insurance. The public adjuster can help them understand that any other type of insurance coverage generally does not cover flooding. No worries! The public adjuster will help the hurricane victims assess the damage extent and file an insurance claim even when not covered by flooding insurance. The carrier can always offer adequate compensation for wind damage or blowing off roof shingles leaving the property unprotected. One may also claim additional living assistance when forced to move out of the home after the hurricane causes devastation of epic proportions.

· Auto Insurance- It is not only the residential & commercial buildings that get affected by a hurricane. The storm may wreak havoc on the self-owned automobile as well. The public adjuster can advise the client about the benefits of claiming flooding damages when the car is damaged permanently. The insurance adjuster would have to declare it as totaled or irreparable when there is no hope of using the vehicle anymore. Individuals with gap insurance coverage can hope to recoup some of the damages from the auto insurance in force.

· Higher Deductible- Insured individuals who have been paying a higher premium with a substantial amount of deductible covering wind damage caused by hurricanes may also claim additional compensation from their carrier.

· Extras- It also makes sense to go through the insurance document to understand whether one qualifies for additional benefits. The insurance company should pay for the repairs required when trees are uprooted from the garden and damage the neighbor's property. The exact amount will be fixed after discussing the situation with the adjuster.

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The costs of hiring a property damage claims adjuster in Big Pine Key and Key West, FL, are justified as the insured person stands to be compensated as required. The public adjuster can negotiate with the insurance company effectively and obtain damages that are often overlooked by the insured and ignored by the carrier.

[ofmusingsxandmayhem]

((Re-posting my old shippy dynamic wishlist post, but have removed ones for retired muses or changed ones that I have already got. Let me know if you're interested.))

Alanna - give me a CIA agent who is her contact when informing, who she flirts with relentlessly much to the irritation of her brother. M/F 26+  (age gaps welcome)

Andi - another lawyer who she is constantly put up against in cases, they really dislike one another and yet when they meet in a social setting, they can’t deny there’s something there. M 36+

Ben - a supernatural being who he has hunted in the past, who has also hunted him, and yet neither can ever bring themselves to harm the other. M 40+

Benji - a civilian partner or husband who knows what he does for work and is supportive of his recovery from what he’s been through. M 40+ 

Charlotte - gimme another assassin who she is in a rivalry with, constantly trying to one-up the other but they’re also totally sleeping together. Any 27+ (age gaps welcome)

Cris - a colleague who he’s known for a long time, someone who is able to get past his walls (he’s reluctant because he knows that his time is running out but he also craves love). M 39+

Ellen - someone younger than her who is pursuing her and despite her trying to turn them down, she can’t help but enjoy having someone so desperate for her. M/F 25+ 

Eric - for his supernatural verse, could be a hunter or law enforcement who has been tracking him down but he evades them at every turn, yet when they do meet, there’s something there. M 45+

Eva - gimme a classic bad boy or bad girl who brings out a more rebellious and fun loving side out of her. M/F 22+ (age gaps welcome)

Evan - the parent of a student he is tutoring in music who he had got close to, but he’s holding back his feelings because his student’s well being comes first. M 35+

Freddie - someone who was also a performer around the same time as he was, could have stayed in the industry, who Freddie had a crush on when he was young but he was still figuring out who he was, and now they’ve met again years later. M 40+

Gabi - another magical being who comes along and sweeps her off her feet. Or a rival musician in town. Any 24+ 

Gen - either a member of a rival organisation or one from her family's who she's pursuing. Any 27+ (age gaps welcome)

Harry - another medical resident who he is competing with but it’s nothing negative, just good fun and they hook up at student parties. M 25+

Hollie - an old school friend who’s been her bff for a long time but now oops are those feelings? M/F 25+ 

Ilsa - someone in a similar job to her who understands the life she leads. No immediate romance, just a physical relationship, but it could develop over time if she feels something. M/F 30+

Isabella - parent of one of her students who moves into the same apartment block as her and they grow close. M/F 28+ (age gaps welcome)  

Jayne - someone who helps out at the sanctuary, maybe who does a lot of handywork or something and they are good friends that become more. Picturing them hiding out in the house after a rainy day with hot drinks and blankets and Things Happen. M/F 33+

Kara - one of her regular customers at the garage, maybe a businessman whose marriage is on the rocks and Kara is an escape for him, she just enjoys the thrill. M 30+ (age gaps welcome)

Lia - someone who she knows that she feels strongly for but she is afraid to let them in because she will outlive them. M/F 50+ 

Matt - an ex husband where they co-parent a child together, but there’s still feelings that they can’t deny. M 30+

Mira - another professor at the university with a ‘will-they-won’t-they’ vibe. All the students ship it but they try to deny it as long as they can because Professionals. M 40+

Neve - for her modern fairytale verse, another royal from another kingdom. M/F 30+

Nick - for his thirties!verse, a former professor who Nick had a thing with once but never again because it crossed professional lines, but now he’s not a student anymore, maybe they can try again? M 40+ (age gaps welcome)  

Nyah - someone who she knew in her thief days but now she’s an agent and maybe he is still in that life so they’re on opposing sides now. M 40+

Olivia - for her younger verse, a client who started hiring her for the obvious, but now they just spend time together and are falling for one another. Could be in a broken marriage or single. M/F 25+ (age gaps welcome)

Oscar - another agent who has been his friend since they started at the CIA, who knew him through his marriage and supported him after the incident with his ex, feelings developing over a long-term friendship. M 40+

Prue - a colleague where they keep telling each other it’ll never happen again but it totally does. M/F 35+ 

Rose - a hunter who she has a good connection with, they help each other out and occasionally seek each other for comfort. M/F 35+ 

Scott - another actor where they’re playing rivals in a show/movie but in real life they’re in love and hiding it. M 25+ (age gaps welcome)  

Steven - someone who knows how dedicated he is to his job and tries not to let it get in the way of their relationship. M 45+

Will - someone who was his counsellor after Croatia but now he’s back in the field and doing well and doesn’t need to see him, and they catch up for a drink now and then and maybe something develops. M 38+

Zara - someone a bit older who maybe lives in the same building as her and helps her out with Lily and over time they start to fall for one another and there’s conflicted feelings about their age difference and whether it’s good for Lily but they can’t help how they feel. M/F 30+ (age gaps welcome)

[hiddenknives]

@ineviitability​ said: " i never thought i'd see you again... " ( rachel to charlotte )

"Me neither.” Charlotte’s voice was flat as she spoke and she began to feel nauseous at the sight of her sister. Was it fear or anger bubbling up her throat? She set the soccer ball back on the ground and kept her eyes trained on Rachel. She wasn’t ready to trust her again anytime soon and if it weren’t for her curiosity, she would’ve walked away. It wasn’t easy standing in front of her after what she had done to Susan. “I thought you were leaving Canada. Or at least Toronto.”

[untothisstorm]

"hey, hey, don't cry. it's okay. c'mon, come sit under the blanket with me."

“I have a lot of bad dreams. S-sometimes they feel too real.” The darkness helped to hide most of Charlotte’s tears and she wiped her cheeks, quickly climbing into bed next to her friend. The fact that Trixie was willing to comfort her made her to start to feel better already, even though the terrible memories still lingered. She was so lucky to have her new dad, Detective Bell, and Trixie’s mom to protect her but it didn’t feel like enough. They couldn’t protect her from the nightmares, the memories, and the everlasting effect that the kidnapping had on her. It wasn’t something she could escape.

“There were a lot of bad people that wanted to hurt my mom...and they did hurt her.” She wiped her face again and she rolled onto her side, her knees curling closer to her chest. “And they keep hurting her in my dreams and they hurt me too.”

[untothisstormarchived]

“where are we going to put a bear that big?” (for young Charlotte)

“Let’s put it in your boss’s office!” Charlotte laughed, swinging her hand and his as they walked down the aisle of the store. There was no heavy weight of fear weighing her down today. It would reappear tonight when she was alone in bed, contemplating her existence- but for now she was free of that. It’s just a normal store outing with her best friend, George. “We could put it in his office then keep moving it around. One day it’s in the morgue, the next it’s in a cell. They’ll never know where it is next.”

[trivialqueen]

Chess

Here’s the next section of that original story. Still currently, and creatively called, Hospital Romance Drama. As always, I’m neither a doctor, nor British.  I’m just a girl who fancies herself a writer and likes slow burns, smart women, and tall men.

“Did you sanction this?” Ms. Hale didn’t knock when she entered his office, but the click-click of her heels had announced her.

“Knocking is common curtesy when entering another’s abode, is it not Ms. Hale?” He capped his pen without thinking about it. His muscle memory could tell she wasn’t going to be leaving his office any time soon.

“If you wanted people to knock you shouldn’t have left your door off the latch.” It’s not a hill he’s willing to die on. He can see she’s spoiling for a fight; it sparks in her dark eyes. They’re not blazing hellfire at him, for once, but they’re quick and sharp all the same. A bee in her bonnet for sure, and while he has a board meeting later today, he knows it would be worse than futile to try and rush her out of his office before she was ready to go. So instead he inclines his head, acquiescing to her point and waiting for her to get back to her original point.

“I’m told you’re getting rid of the – -- machines.” He didn’t have to wait long.

The DOS’s office was on the 4th floor, amidst a maze of corridors that led to conference rooms, HR, and the records department. She’d visited it several times during Charlotte’s tenure as Director of Surgery. She’d not been back since Magnusson took over. The bones were the same. Same double doors framed by wave patterned glass blocks that provided both privacy and a vague sense of who was outside the door. Across from the door was a wall of windows with a beautiful view of the car park, along the ledge which ran under the windows he had kept with Charlotte’s tradition of keeping plants. His looked markedly more alive than hers ever did. It was perhaps a terrifying or a very fitting fact that despite being a talented surgeon and a devoted mother she couldn’t keep a plant – even a cactus – alive for longer than a month. The walls were the same warm shade of ecru and the floors the same industrial beige Berber. Beyond that the room was completely different, as distinct as the two people. Charlotte’s office had been an eclectic mash of overstuffed seating and bohemian rugs, ornate lighting and a big vintage desk. Magnusson’s office was in a, predictable, curated Scandinavian design. He sat behind a sleek, teak L shaped desk, filing cabinets and bookshelves anchored on the wall behind him. At the other end of the narrow, rectangular office there was a small meeting table, in matching sleek, teak design and a very square, grey sofa. Tossed over the back of the seats was the only source of color, a blue ikat blanket, which looked delightfully soft. Even the pictures on the wall were in black and white. If the – -- weren’t on the line she might be tempted to take a closer look at the objects d’art around his office. The sculptures on his shelves, the photo sitting on his desk – the only non-practical item on the tidy worktop. But the – -- machines were, apparently, at stake. Short notice as well. Probably hoping to avoid protest. She thought bitterly, Jokes on you!

Hale paced in front of his desk, hands slashing through the air as she spoke – making a passionate case for two old CT machines the hospital board had decided were surplus. Only used a handful of times a year, tops, the space could be better utilized. Without them the south Harvey bay would be entirely open for new, hopefully more lucrative, or at least ambitious projects. He’d been apathetic about the idea before but seeing her agitation he was willing reconsider his position. Ms. Hale had good instincts, even if she also had a distaste for rules and a self-righteous streak wider than a football pitch.

“If you have strong opinions about those machines.” He cut off the third verse of her rant about what a mistake they were making. She stopped pacing and stared at him. “I have a board meeting in an hour. Write up a proposal for me to give them.”

“What?”

“Write a proposal for the board regarding the machines and I’ll present it to the board in,” he checked his watch, “fifty-five minutes.”

“It’s not a done deal? There’s a guy here to take the machines away now! He might have already taken them if he’d not hurt himself.”

“He what!?” Visions of lawsuits danced in his head. What happened? Why hadn’t he been informed?

“Not important.” She waved the question away. “He’s fine. You won’t let him take the machines?”

“Let is a strong word, he has his orders. The board had decided already. I am offering you a second chance.” She studied him eyes pinning him like a bug under glass. The spark was still there, as was a wariness as if she was deciding if she trusted him. He stared right back. For a long moment they just stared at one another. Then, she seemed to realize what she was doing, and her gaze dropped. He could see her cheeks flush before he looked elsewhere himself.

“How many copies do you need?” She asked, picking up one of the pawns from his chess set. Chess was one of his few hobbies. Playing against a computer was convenient, and challenging, but it felt so hollow clicking around on a screen. Even when he was playing the computer, he wanted to be able to see and move the pieces in the real world. The set had been a gift from his mother, the pieces carved from wood, based on the Lewis chessmen. The set was one of his most cherished possessions.  

“Hmm?”

“For the board, how many copies do I need to run you off for this proposal?”

“Seven.” She had forty-five minutes to pull this off. But at least she seemed to be willing to follow the procedures in this instance. He was almost tempted to ask if she was feeling well. He resisted. Just.

“well tempus volat, hora fugit.” She placed the piece back on the board.

“I’ll get you the proposal before you meet. Seven copies.”

“The meeting is in forty minutes.” She paused at the door, looking over her shoulder.

“I’ll see you in thirty-five then.” She smiled. “Thank you.” The door closed behind her with a soft click. It was the second time she’d smiled at him…

Felix, as a general rule, eschewed violence. However, in that moment he could happily throttle Sofia Grace. Things had been going so well. She’d gotten him her proposal five minutes before the meeting started, seven copies as he’d asked. There was only one type-o betraying the haste with which he’d written the document. Her prose had been clear, concise, and pitched toward her audience – emphasizing the PR/image those machines could generate since they were particularly effective in diagnosing issue with small, adorable children. Not that it mattered now.

Ms. Hale sat on the tailgate of the truck, as primly as if she was taking tea with the queen, except for the chains wrapped around her waist and the truck. Beside her, sitting as regally as if she was the queen was a striking older woman. Her hair the color of pure snow falling over her shoulders, wrapped in a lavender silk robe. She was, mercifully, not chained to the truck. Both were chatting amiably with Oliver Anderson, who for his part seemed to be trying and failing to coax the patient away from Ms. Hale.

“Come on, Colleen.” Anderson wheedled. “I really need you to come back to the ward with me.”

“And as your Doctor, I must insist.” She patted her knee, “Go with Dr. Anderson, darling. I’ve got it from here.”

“Do you? I know a thing or two about protests you know.” The woman preened. Across the parking she caught his eye.

“Oh, I know. And after you’re in recovery I’d like to hear all about it. But for now, please let Ollie take you to bed. My audience is here.” The woman was not subtle in how she looked at young Dr. Anderson.

“He’s got eyes like Fonda.” Ms. Hale’s gaze slid from his, slowly, turning to look at Anderson, her expression softening to a wry smile.

“Doesn’t he just.”

“Come on Vanessa Redgrave.” In the time that he had been at St. Sebastian’s Felix had been rather underwhelmed by the young foundation doctor’s medical skills, but he was exceedingly popular with the patients. And his eyes really were almost an unnatural shade of blue. The old patient turned from Anderson and took Hale’s hand.

“You call if you need me, dear.”

“I was about to put your proposal to the board when I was called down here.” Magnusson crossed the parking, one hand in his pocket. He ambled over to her; his tone conversational. He might have been chatting with her about the recent Bundesliga game. It was an impressive performance considering the grinding of his jaw and the flint in his eyes. He was so angry he was calm. When she was angry, she knew she burned hot. Could taste the blood in the back of her throat, felt her hands shake, her stomach swoop. It felt like rage crackled from her fingertips. His fury was not fire. It was all ice.

“Circumstances changed.”

“I’ll say. You’ve hardly furthered your cause with this stunt.” He crossed his arms over his chest. At a glance it seemed passively displeased but standing next to her she could see the way his fingers dug into his arms, the wrinkles in his suit jacket under his nails.

“Other options weren’t producing necessary results.”

“So, you chained yourself to the truck?!”

“It got attention, didn’t it?”

“Do you ever think ahead? Or even care about your reputation?” He looked down his straight nose with an imperious eye. God Almighty he could be condescending.

I don’t give a damn about my bad reputation! Joan Jett immediately got stuck in her head.

“Compared to what’s at stake, not really.”

“Perhaps you should, considering this is the definition of insubordination and gross misconduct. You could be fired.” There was a hardness in his eyes as he stared down at her.

Fired.

It was admittedly not an ideal situation. And yet it did not scare her like it might have. Not anymore. There were worse things in this world.

It was steely determination, rather than incandescent rage, that shown out of those coffee brown eyes. It was in contrast to her wry smile which twisted across her cayenne colored lips without any humor. She patted the tailgate next to her, and he felt compelled to take the seat.

“I died once; you know.” She said softly. He recalled that from her file. More than once if one counted both the episode in the ambulance, her flatlining on the table during surgery, and an incident with a shard of glass after her initial procedure. There was a sadness around the edges of her gaze, in the undercurrent of her voice. And despite sitting on the filthy tailgate of a truck in the loading bay of the hospital the moment felt intimate.

“After being good and quiet and rule following my entire life.” She continued. “And I died. I got better and since then all I can think is like, what’s the worst that can happen when you’ve already died once? What can you do to me? Fire me? By the grace of God and these hands, I’ve got savings, I’ve got skills, I’ve got a support system. I can find another job. I got second chance and I’m not going to waste it being ‘good’ when I can spend it saving lives. Go ahead, fire me over this. I don’t think I’m wrong though. These machines are worth saving.”

Well then.

“And I almost had, without any of this fanfare. If you’d just waited.” The proposal she had written had been a good one, and it was late enough in the meeting that most of the members cared about calling it a day. Twenty minutes and the machines would have been free and clear. It was almost as if she didn’t want the process to work.

“Circumstances changed.”

“What? What circumstances?” He looked around, the machines weren’t even on the truck yet and as far as he could tell the only people around were drawn by her protest. There was no maintenance men around, no laborers hauling away the machines yet. Nothing. She opened her mouth to speak.

“No.” He cut her off. “I was in the middle of presenting your proposal. The middle. If you waited ten minutes this would have been taken care of. What circumstances changed? I see no change. Those machines aren’t out here. No one is out here except the people this stunt has attracted. It’s like you don’t want this to work.”

“Of course I want this to work! I want to save those machines!” He hopped up from the gate. He wanted to throttle her. Rather than wrap his hands around her lovely throat he ran a hand through his hair.

“You. You want to save those machines. Be the martyr. Be the savior. And you won’t let anyone take that from you. Even if someone else can help. If someone else could have succeeded.” It was possible for someone to look more insulted than Sofia Grace did in that moment, but only just. The hot, spice of her anger rolled off of her in a wave. Her eyes blazed.

“How dare you!” She was incandescently angry. It was terrifying. Beautiful. And he found that he didn’t care.

“Why didn’t you trust me?” His voice was so low she almost didn’t hear him over the rush of blood in her ears. FLACHWICHSER! He stood over her, back ramrod straight, his jaw clenched, teeth visibly grinding.

“Why didn’t you trust me to take care of this. I told you I would. I was literally in the meeting doing this work when you stepped in with this self-righteous grandstanding.” He didn’t raise his voice. The accusation landed as heavy as a slap.

“Because to you these machines are just numbers on a balance sheet. Dead space clogging up one of the bays.”

“Really.” He crossed his arms, suit jacket wrinkling under his fingers, the white knuckles the only thing betraying his state of mind.

“But to me I see children with heart problems, a chance to make a difference in a family’s life.” Her throat felt raw; tears were threatening. Sofia Grace hated the fact that she was an easy crier. Any strong emotion could send her into tears – anger, pain, joy, sadness. It completely undermined her, and she could never stop it once it started.

“Do you have any evidence for this allegation?” He challenged. “Is it because you believe that you have a monopoly on compassion, or do you truly think that I can’t feel?”

Had she not been so far gone, in a berserker rage, she would have better noted his tone. Hurt. However, she was gone. So gone there was white around the edges of her vision.

“If you cared about these machines, you’d not have let it come to his in the first place!”

His nostrils flared and the grinding of his jaw became more pronounced.

“I am but one man on a seven-member board that is ruled by majority vote.”

“SG! SG!” Oliver Anderson’s voice was like a bucket of cold water on his anger. “It’s Colleen!” The junior doctor came skittering to a stop, nearly bowling him over.

“Sheiße!”

“Helvetes jävla fanskap!” Ms. Hale had chained herself to the truck and tossed the padlock key toward the dumpster. Maintenance might have bolt cutters, but it was a gamble on if finding the key (provided she hadn’t actually hit the dumpster) or finding the cutters would be the faster solution. “Fan out, we have to find that key!” All of his rage, his displeasure, the coil at the base of his spine disappeared and was replaced by clear purpose. “Do you ever think ahead?” He snapped. Alright, perhaps not all of his anger had dissipated. But really, what was she thinking? She was a CT consultant, on duty and just decided to not only chain herself to a truck in an act of pious protest, but also throw away the only key!

“Hang on, hang on.” She snapped back, scooting to the edge of the tailgate, her hands tugging at the chain around her slim waist.

“What are you doing?” It was strange and uncomfortable looking as she slithered inch by inch down from her seat. The chain moving up her body inch by inch, bringing her claret colored blouse further up her abdomen. He didn’t want to stare but he couldn’t look away as more and more of her smooth, pale stomach came into view. The scar was long, bisecting her down a center line, almost perfectly, save for the slight jog it took around her navel. It was nearly twenty years old, healed and faded from the once angry, jagged line it had been but still pinker than her natural skin tone and slightly puckered. It continued down below the waistband of her slacks and up into her chest (not that it was visible yet, the shirt was bunched under her breasts as she kept wiggling through the loop). The upper half of the open surgery scar was slightly more faded, almost impossible to discern from her cleavage if she wore a blouse that revealed any (not that he’d ever admit to looking).

“Just a second.” She grunted, flattening her own breasts until the chain slipped over them, which it did eventually. She raised her arms above her head and finished slipping through. She found herself free of her chains, on her hands and knees in the car park. She quickly popped up, straightening her blouse and dusting her hands, her cayenne colored smile cocky and broad.

“I am not as dumb as I look!” She said brightly before rushing toward the door.

“Ms. Hale, my office as soon as!” He called. She acknowledged him with a wave of her hand and disappeared into the hospital.

“What should we do with this?” At his elbow the junkman appeared, hobbling on crutches, answering that question more than Dr. Hale did.

“Hold off, plans have changed.” The board hadn’t formally voted, but enough members had told him they didn’t care what he did with the machines if it mattered so much.

Three decisive knocks took his attention from the file he was only half-heartedly reading. It was past the hour people generally headed home for the day, but he had never been most people. More than that, he and Ms. Hale had a conversation they needed to have and she only now had gotten out of surgery.

Word on the ward was that it had not gone well.

Ms. Hale did not sweep in has she had before, proud and pugnacious. She was tired, faded. She’d dressed after surgery, but not reapplied her lipstick. He could not think of a better metaphor for how she looked than that faded cayenne.

“She had been a long-term patient of yours I’m told.” And quite the character too by all accounts. Sofia Grace ran a hand through her curls.

“Yes.”

“Your proposal passed, with amendment. We will keep the equipment but move it out of the bay and downstairs with the less frequently used machines.”

“Thank you.” She gave him a small nod before turning her attention to his chessboard once again, slim fingers brushing over the pieces. “I was out of line today. I’m sorry.” The apology was so unexpected he wouldn’t even complain about the way her eyes failed to meet his. Or even look at him.

“Yes. You were.”

“I should have trusted your word when you said you were bringing the matter to the board. I certainly jumped the gun in the most dramatic way possible.” He couldn’t help the dark chuckle. That was putting it mildly. “More than that, I crossed a line. I should have never even remotely suggested that I have a monopoly on compassion or that you do not care for your patients or the wellbeing of the hospital more broadly. And for that I am sorry.”

He was not expecting that.

Apologies were not natural for him. He did not give them easily nor did he know how to accept them.

“Yes, well.” Awkwardly he cleared his throat. “If you are going to continue to work here, Ms. Hale, you’re going to have to learn to trust me.  I am not the enemy.”

“I guess we shall see then.” She picked up a white knight from the board, turning the piece over and over in her fingers. It was not the response he expected.

“See what?”

“If I’m still working here for one.” She raised her eyes to his, slowly. “If I’ll trust you. If you’re not the enemy.”

“Everything I have done and everything I will do is for the good of this hospital.” Her dark eyes twinkled at him.

“You certainly believe that.”

“I do.” He replied firmly. “Have some faith in me, Ms. Hale, if only a little.”

“I will try.” She said firmly and then placed the knight back on the chessboard, not in its original place but out into the field. “It’s your move.”

[corxunum]

general info.

FULL NAME: Charlotte Anna Leroux NICKNAMES: Lola MAIN FC/S : Bella Heathcote AGE: 30 BIRTHDAY: October 10th EHTNIC GROUP: Caucasian NATIONALITY: French, Russian LANGUAGES: French, English, Russian SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Bisexual (leaning towards men) ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Biromantic, monogamous RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Single CLASS: Upper (now) HOME TOWN /AREA: Paris, France PROFESSION: Dancer, part-time model, “socialite”

physical.

HAIR: Vrious shades of blonde EYES: Blue COMPLEXION: Fair and rosy, even SCARS: Left knee from surgical procedure TATTOOS: Small hummingbird on her left side HEIGHT: 5′5″ (1,65m) WEIGHT: 110lbs (50kg) BUILD: Slim, toned, strong muscles but slender appearance. Straight posture, elegant movements but slight limp in left leg when physically exhausted USUAL CLOTHING: Up-to-date chic, modern, chic

psychology.

MBTI: ESFP (Entertainer) ALIGNMENT: Chaotic neutral ZODIAC: Libra TEMPERAMENT: Sanguine VICE HABITS: Smoking, drinking, recreational drugs, painkillers FAITH : Agnostic (raised in non-observant Jewish household) EDUCATION LEVEL : College

family.

FATHER : Oskar Leroux, estranged MOTHER : Raisa Leroux nee Mendelson SIBLINGS : Gaspard (11 months her senior)

biography/verses :

1.       MAIN

One can imagine her parents´ relief when a way out of the dangerous Banlieues of Paris presents itself in the form of Charlotte Leroux´ exceptional talent for dancing. The daughter of Jewish Russian immigrants is accepted at one of the most prestigious ballet school of Paris, the Opera national de Paris, at the young age of eight, which entails a dramatic change not only in the young girl´s but also her parents Raisa and Oskar as well as her older brother Gaspard´s, lives that soon causes a deep rift in the familiar bond. The financial burden of school fees weighs heavy on the low-income earners, strict schedules and struggle to make ends meet domineer their daily living until Oskar, overwhelmed by hardship and a wife who refuses to bereave their daughter of her only hope for a better future, leaves the family. From that day on Raisa, a former ground school teacher with no chance of finding a similar teaching position in France, takes on cleaning jobs and offers private tuition additionally to her job as seamstress to make for her children´s proper education.

Despite the difficult situation at home, Charlotte thrives and soon turns out to be one of the most promising talents at the academy much to the delight of the school´s director, Benoit Beauchamp. He takes a liking to the impressionable girl and isn’t scared of openly favouring her, as in for example casting her as lead in significant school performances. But Charlotte shouldn’t stay so lucky. At the age of seventeen an unfortunate accident during one of her long routine training hours causes a complicated fracture in her knee, severe enough to force her away from the dancefloor for several weeks. In this vulnerable period of recovery, Benoit offers his help to his favourite student. It comes as it must and months of private tutoring lead to teacher and pupil engaging in a forbidden affair. Which would have been a simple thing to hide if it wasn’t for the unlucky event of Charlotte´s sudden pregnancy. Besides his own egoistical motifs, Benoit does not accept such a scandal to endanger his underage lover´s future and advises her to terminate the pregnancy, which the girl accepts albeit much to her dismay. However, when several attests later becomes clear that Charlotte will never find her old form again and painkillers become vital to keep dancing, Benoit ends the relationship, paying her a decent monthly compensation to keep quiet.

Shaken by grief, Charlotte quits ballet school but thanks to her contacts to the world of the rich and famous the young woman was able to establish during her time at the Opera, she can remain residing in Paris, earning her livelihood with occasional model jobs and suitors who don´t mind being generous for attending big events with a pretty young thing on their arm, namely Paris´ former ballet prodigy, the ange dansant.

2.    OF GODS AND MONSTERS (MYTHOLOGY)

When Raisa and Oskar Leroux stay childless for several years into their marriage, the couple who can’t afford expensive fertility treatments resorts to more unconventional methods. Their neighbourhood being a melting pot of cultures and faiths, they seek out a woman who is said to be able to help with a problem as theirs and advises them to pray to the ancient Celtic fertility goddess Epona. They follow the woman´s instructions by building a small shrine, offering prayers and gifts and sacrifice as much as their little incomes allow. Within only two years the couple is given a son and daughter and as Epona reveals in a dream to the parents, both kids are blessed with special gifts as reward for their parents faith and generosity in their offerings. While Gaspard should find his calling later in life, charlotte soon shows her immense talent for dancing which should not be her only skill, as she will eventually find out.

powers: enhanced youth, longevity, enhanced physical strength and agility, invisibility (bound to certain circumstances, very limited).

3.    STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN OR HIGHWAY TO HELL (SUPERNATURAL)

In a world thrown into turmoil, a woman on her own doesn’t have the luxury of choosing between good or evil. Rather she doesn’t have to, when she can gain profit from both sides. And so Charlotte Leroux is always on the hunt for knowledge or valuable magical items, willing to sell to the highest bidder, regardless of their side in the fight.

4.    JUST A SPECK IN MY DNA (MARVEL)

Lucky enough Raisa Mendelson skipped the genetic defect common in her family that grants its owner some sort of power or skill that makes them appear superhuman and thus, target for the secret governmental institution hunting and experimenting on people like them. Having lost several family members who hadn’t been able to keep their powers secret under suspicious circumstances, she insists on leaving the country as soon as she and Oskar are married, in case the gene should be passed down to any of their children. When not their son but their daughter shows the signs of owning a power, the mother urges her to keep it a secret by all means, which works until it is discovered in a moment of improvidence during training at ballet school. The immensely talented girl gets dismissed from school in a quiet manner in order to avoid a scandal. Since then, Lola lives life in constant wariness of anyone revealing her secret to the world.

powers: Gravitokinesis [can create, shape and manipulate gravitation, a natural phenomenon by which all physical bodies attract each other. meaning lola can levitate, use enhanced jumping and move objects by will. Invisibility by absorbing visible light.

5. COMPOSED OF MATTER IN CONSTANT FLUX (SCI-FI)

Species from other planets and worlds tend not to be the most frightening beings frequenting earth, according to most humans; it’s artificial intelligences like Charlotte that are met with far more scepticism at best and hatred at worst. Created to act as anthropoid as possible, she is not only equipped with sharp intellect, eternal youth and durability and the ability to learn and understand but a coding that is supposed to mimic human emotions, even wits and charm. Machines cannot feel though, can they?

6. ALL MONSTERS ARE HUMAN (ASYLUM)

Events in Charlotte´s main verse apply up to the point she realises having forfeited her career as prima ballerina. Together with the grief about the termination of her pregnancy and loss of her lover, the young girl snaps and gets admitted to a mental institution.

7. AS YOU WISH (FAIRYTALE/FANTASY)

Coming from a humble background and a family that has travelled across half the kingdom to find a new place to settle down, young charlotte will not accept her fate to be married off to the next best suitor. Smart and charming, she proves to be an exceptional talent at dancing which together with her sharp wits could better her chances to impress the “right” people significantly, namely the very ones who can help her escape the shackles of poverty.

8. EVIL IS A POINT OF VIEW (EVIL)

After being discharged from the mental institution that held her for several years, the young woman has changed but not for the better. Having successfully convinced her doctors of her recovery she now chooses to follow a ruthless lifestyle, always on the edge of morality and legality, without fear of consequence or tomorrow.

[eviestest]

general info.

FULL NAME: Charlotte Anna Leroux NICKNAMES: Lola MAIN FC/S : Bella Heathcote AGE: 30 BIRTHDAY: October 10th EHTNIC GROUP: Caucasian NATIONALITY: French, Russian LANGUAGES: French, English, Russian SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Bisexual (leaning towards men) ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Biromantic, monogamous RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Single CLASS: Upper (now) HOME TOWN /AREA: Paris, France PROFESSION: Dancer, part-time model, “socialite”

physical.

HAIR: Vrious shades of blonde EYES: Blue COMPLEXION: Fair and rosy, even SCARS: Left knee from surgical procedure TATTOOS: Small hummingbird on her left side HEIGHT: 5′5″ (1,65m) WEIGHT: 110lbs (50kg) BUILD: Slim, toned, strong muscles but slender appearance. Straight posture, elegant movements but slight limp in left leg when physically exhausted USUAL CLOTHING: Up-to-date chic, modern, chic 

psychology.

MBTI: ESFP (Entertainer) ALIGNMENT: Chaotic neutral ZODIAC: Libra TEMPERAMENT: Sanguine VICE HABITS: Smoking, drinking, recreational drugs, painkillers FAITH : Agnostic (raised in non-observant Jewish household) EDUCATION LEVEL : College

family.

FATHER : Oskar Leroux, estranged MOTHER : Raisa Leroux nee Mendelson SIBLINGS : Gaspard (11 months her senior)

BIOGRAPHY/VERSES :

1.       MAIN

One can imagine her parents´ relief when a way out of the dangerous Banlieues of Paris presents itself in the form of Charlotte Leroux´ exceptional talent for dancing. The daughter of Jewish Russian immigrants is accepted at one of the most prestigious ballet school of Paris, the Opera national de Paris, at the young age of eight, which entails a dramatic change not only in the young girl´s but also her parents Raisa and Oskar as well as her older brother Gaspard´s, lives that soon causes a deep rift in the familiar bond. The financial burden of school fees weighs heavy on the low-income earners, strict schedules and struggle to make ends meet domineer their daily living until Oskar, overwhelmed by hardship and a wife who refuses to bereave their daughter of her only hope for a better future, leaves the family. From that day on Raisa, a former ground school teacher with no chance of finding a similar teaching position in France, takes on cleaning jobs and offers private tuition additionally to her job as seamstress to make for her children´s proper education.

Despite the difficult situation at home, Charlotte thrives and soon turns out to be one of the most promising talents at the academy much to the delight of the school´s director, Benoit Beauchamp. He takes a liking to the impressionable girl and isn’t scared of openly favouring her, as in for example casting her as lead in significant school performances. But Charlotte shouldn’t stay so lucky. At the age of seventeen an unfortunate accident during one of her long routine training hours causes a complicated fracture in her knee, severe enough to force her away from the dancefloor for several weeks. In this vulnerable period of recovery, Benoit offers his help to his favourite student. It comes as it must and months of private tutoring lead to teacher and pupil engaging in a forbidden affair. Which would have been a simple thing to hide if it wasn’t for the unlucky event of Charlotte´s sudden pregnancy. Besides his own egoistical motifs, Benoit does not accept such a scandal to endanger his underage lover´s future and advises her to terminate the pregnancy, which the girl accepts albeit much to her dismay. However, when several attests later becomes clear that Charlotte will never find her old form again and painkillers become vital to keep dancing, Benoit ends the relationship, paying her a decent monthly compensation to keep quiet.

Shaken by grief, Charlotte quits ballet school but thanks to her contacts to the world of the rich and famous the young woman was able to establish during her time at the Opera, she can remain residing in Paris, earning her livelihood with occasional model jobs and suitors who don´t mind being generous for attending big events with a pretty young thing on their arm, namely Paris´ former ballet prodigy, the ange dansant.

2.    OF GODS AND MONSTERS (MYTHOLOGY)

When Raisa and Oskar Leroux stay childless for several years into their marriage, the couple who can’t afford expensive fertility treatments resorts to more unconventional methods. Their neighbourhood being a melting pot of cultures and faiths, they seek out a woman who is said to be able to help with a problem as theirs and advises them to pray to the ancient Celtic fertility goddess Epona. They follow the woman´s instructions by building a small shrine, offering prayers and gifts and sacrifice as much as their little incomes allow. Within only two years the couple is given a son and daughter and as Epona reveals in a dream to the parents, both kids are blessed with special gifts as reward for their parents faith and generosity in their offerings. While Gaspard should find his calling later in life, charlotte soon shows her immense talent for dancing which should not be her only skill, as she will eventually find out.

powers: enhanced youth, longevity, enhanced physical strength and agility, invisibility (bound to certain circumstances, very limited).

3.    STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN OR HIGHWAY TO HELL (SUPERNATURAL)

In a world thrown into turmoil, a woman on her own doesn’t have the luxury of choosing between good or evil. Rather she doesn’t have to, when she can gain profit from both sides. And so Charlotte Leroux is always on the hunt for knowledge or valuable magical items, willing to sell to the highest bidder, regardless of their side in the fight.

4.    JUST A SPECK IN MY DNA (MARVEL)

Lucky enough Raisa Mendelson skipped the genetic defect common in her family that grants its owner some sort of power or skill that makes them appear superhuman and thus, target for the secret governmental institution hunting and experimenting on people like them. Having lost several family members who hadn’t been able to keep their powers secret under suspicious circumstances, she insists on leaving the country as soon as she and Oskar are married, in case the gene should be passed down to any of their children. When not their son but their daughter shows the signs of owning a power, the mother urges her to keep it a secret by all means, which works until it is discovered in a moment of improvidence during training at ballet school. The immensely talented girl gets dismissed from school in a quiet manner in order to avoid a scandal. Since then, Lola lives life in constant wariness of anyone revealing her secret to the world.

powers: Gravitokinesis [can create, shape and manipulate gravitation, a natural phenomenon by which all physical bodies attract each other. meaning lola can levitate, use enhanced jumping and move objects by will. Invisibility by absorbing visible light.

5. COMPOSED OF MATTER IN CONSTANT FLUX (SCI-FI)

Species from other planets and worlds tend not to be the most frightening beings frequenting earth, according to most humans; it’s artificial intelligences like Charlotte that are met with far more scepticism at best and hatred at worst. Created to act as anthropoid as possible, she is not only equipped with sharp intellect, eternal youth and durability and the ability to learn and understand but a coding that is supposed to mimic human emotions, even wits and charm. Machines cannot feel though, can they?

6. ALL MONSTERS ARE HUMAN (ASYLUM)

Events in Charlotte´s main verse apply up to the point she realises having forfeited her career as prima ballerina. Together with the grief about the termination of her pregnancy and loss of her lover, the young girl snaps and gets admitted to a mental institution.

7. AS YOU WISH (FAIRYTALE/FANTASY)

Coming from a humble background and a family that has travelled across half the kingdom to find a new place to settle down, young charlotte will not accept her fate to be married off to the next best suitor. Smart and charming, she proves to be an exceptional talent at dancing which together with her sharp wits could better her chances to impress the “right” people significantly, namely the very ones who can help her escape the shackles of poverty.

8. EVIL IS A POINT OF VIEW (EVIL)

After being discharged from the mental institution that held her for several years, the young woman has changed but not for the better. Having successfully convinced her doctors of her recovery she now chooses to follow a ruthless lifestyle, always on the edge of morality and legality, without fear of consequence or tomorrow.

[qqueenofhades]

Chloe Decker and the Heir of Merlin [Lucifer/Harry Potter]

Happy Deckerstar Summer Exchange to @kirayukimuras! I was intending this to be longer, but then summer turned insane... alas. Anyway, yes, the promised Deckerstar Harry Potter AU. (I have to tag @lightbringersamael for reasons, since we invented the details of this verse together.) Enjoy!

The choking grit of stone and smoke and dust, the burnt-ozone afterglare of spells, the pale, tremulous sunlight of the first day of the rest of everyone’s lives, bear down on Chloe Decker’s shoulders as she wades through the rubble of the courtyard. Hogwarts is blasted and broken, but still standing, still standing, and Voldemort is dead. It sounds like a dream, it sounds like a trick, he’ll spring up and order the battle resumed – but he doesn’t. It’s going to take a while for everyone to believe it. And yet just now, as the recovery of bodies continues, Chloe has only one thought – and one fear.

They said they last saw him around here, dueling his mother. There’s a particularly deep crater that could have been made by a giant, or a curse, or – Chloe’s breath catches painfully in her chest, she stuffs her wand in the filthy sleeve of her robes so she can have both hands for climbing. Reaches the spot, and looks down.

“Lucifer?”

There’s nothing. No sign. The broken rock shifts, and falls.

“Maze?” Chloe coughs, looks around for Lucifer’s best friend, his loyal shadow, co-leader of the “cool Slytherins,” the two of them among the few from their house who stayed back to fight. But then, Lucifer has been pushing the Carrows’ buttons all year, and Chloe doesn’t want to believe half the whispers about what they were doing to him – scion of the anciently pureblood Morningstars, who claim to trace their descent from Merlin himself, Lucifer’s defiance is unfathomable to them. They will have him or break him or both. When Chloe thinks of the bright-eyed, eleven-year-old boy named Samael, who she met just five years ago, wonders how they can only be sixteen with everything that has happened to them, everything they have done and not said, it makes something close to agony rise in her chest. He has to be here. He has to be somewhere.

“LUCIFER!”

Her shouts rings away across the blasted towers of Hogwarts without an answer.

Chloe takes out her wand again and starts levitating the rubble – it would be quicker to just Reducto her way through this, but she can’t take the risk of hitting him if he’s somewhere under there, grievously wounded and unconscious but still alive. If Harry can survive, why can’t he? She knows that Potter, a year ahead of her in Gryffindor, the captain of her Quidditch team, more or less a friend, is special, the Boy Who Lived – no one else is getting hit by Avada Kedavra once, let alone twice, and living to tell the tale. Surely Charlotte Morningstar, devoted Death Eater as she might otherwise be, isn’t killing her own son. Chloe can’t give up.

Swish and flick, she thinks, remembering first-year Charms classes. Swish and flick. Up go the pieces. There is spell damage everywhere. Whoever was fighting here was unleashing advanced and esoteric curses – far beyond O.W.L., possibly even beyond N.E.W.T., and Lucifer always did like to push boundaries, refine technique. Got detention at least a dozen times for being caught by Filch in the Restricted Section. None of it ever stopped him. Very little ever did – does. He is one of the most talented, and potentially deadly dangerous, wizards that Hogwarts has ever taught. Chloe knows there will be absolutely no tears shed if he’s discovered dead, if they’ve gotten a two-for-one special, taken down both You-Know-Who and a likely heir to the throne. That’s not Lucifer, that’s not the Lucifer she knows, who hates his insanely wealthy Slytherin family and the Dark Arts and everything they’ve chosen to be after they cast him out, but it’s hard to see past. He hasn’t made it any easier.

There’s only one block remaining to be moved. The rest of the castle is still being searched. This doesn’t have to be the last chance, but it feels like it.

Chloe’s voice comes out as a hoarse whisper. “Wingardium Leviosa.”

The heavy stone floats aside like a feather.

There’s nothing below but scorch marks.

Chloe’s breath feels driven out of her as if she’s taken an Impediment Jinx directly to the chest. She goes to her knees, staring down at the soot-stained tomb, knowing that is what it is, that Lucifer is dead, he is dead, and she is never going to see him again. The Ministry can breathe their sigh of relief. The peace can start. This is the happy ending.

Chloe remains where she is, not moving, until she can hear voices calling for her. Dan and Ella, by the sounds of things. They stayed to fight with the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, respectively, and all three of them have spent quite a while living in the Room of Requirement with the other remnants of Dumbledore’s Army. Dan never understood, to say the least, Chloe’s friendship with Lucifer. Ella was more inclined to give him a chance (then again, Ella and Luna Lovegood are good friends, so that’s just Ella). And now Chloe gets to tell them. Has to tell them, and herself, and make it real.

“He’s dead,” she says aloud, and stands up, as Dan and Ella come clambering over the stones. “Lucifer’s dead.”

Chloe Decker was probably supposed to go to Ilvermorny.

Her parents are American – John, a wizard in Magical Homicide and Major Crimes at MACUSA, and Penelope, a Muggle B-movie actress. (Nobody actually calls them “no-majs” – it’s dated Depression-era slang, and if you’re feeling annoyed with the Brits, it’s “muns” or “plebs,” or – if you’re an angry young wizard of certain political leanings, “sheeple,” all of which makes you fairly indistinguishable from the rest of those biting their thumb at the Man.) But when Chloe is nine, John is transferred to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the Ministry of Magic in London, and it becomes a permanent position. Thus when Chloe turns eleven, she receives her Hogwarts letter just like the other young wizards and witches across the country, and of course she wants to go.

Her parents take a little while to be convinced. Penelope wants her to keep up with her Muggle school – she isn’t sure about the British system, the way you go into the magical world and never come out. No more math or English or any of that? The Statute of Secrecy does technically exist in America, but it’s treated much more as guidelines than actual rules – as long as you aren’t being baldly conspicuous, nobody really cares, and many magical children continue attending ordinary schools while being instructed in wizardry at home. Hogwarts is undoubtedly prestigious and English, like Oxford or Cambridge, but it, well, it’s a commitment. Are they going to send Chloe away for seven years and get some impeccably well-trained witch back, who knows Gamp’s Five Laws of Elemental Transfiguration by heart but can’t boil water or pay her gas bill without magic? Besides, British wizard society is so snobbish. They will look down on Chloe for being an American half-blood (Americans aren’t snobbish about the difference between magic and non-magic folk, they’re just ordinarily racist.) Is she sure?

Chloe is eleven. All her magical friends here have been anticipating their Hogwarts letters from the moment they got their first toy broomsticks. She isn’t trudging off to some dismal cement-brick secondary school in Clapham while they’re off to buy wands in Diagon Alley and ride the Hogwarts Express to an ancient, enchanted castle. Of course she’s sure.

Penelope gives in, with the caveat that Chloe continue a Muggle curriculum over the holidays. Chloe promises, with no actual intention to waste perfectly good holidays with more school. Her father takes her into London to buy her school things, and it’s there that she first meets Samael Morningstar.

If everything that Penelope was afraid of in the magical world had a face, it would be the Morningstars. They are possibly the most senior of the Sacred Twenty-Eight pureblood families – vastly wealthy, reclusive, powerful, and not inclined to mingle or trifle with the common folk. The father of the current generation, Deus, has been missing for years – there are all kinds of rumors about his absence. Some of the more lurid hold that he is serving multiple life sentences in Azkaban, but the most accepted story is that he was killed by a Muggle mob some years ago.

This is a source of immense shame to his widow, Charlotte, who has raised their nine children – Amenadiel, Michael, Azrael, Sariel, Raphael, Gabriel, Barachiel, Samael, and Uriel – by herself (and of course with the help of various house-elves and servants). All of them have been in Slytherin except Sariel, who ended up in Ravenclaw, and Gabriel, who was placed to much shock and horror in Hufflepuff. Amenadiel and Michael have left school; the twins Azrael and Sariel are sixth years, and there’s one down the list until the latest one, young Samael, due to start this year. The Morningstars are, in the opinion of their circle, what the Weasleys would be if the Weasleys had blood pride. There’s always another one of them, in other words, and everyone recognizes them. Except, of course, for Chloe. She has no reason to think that the small dark-haired boy, who she glimpses in Madame Malkin’s and Flourish and Blotts and then in Ollivanders, being shepherded by his statuesque, beautiful, but extremely intense blonde mother, is anyone special at all.

They manage to introduce themselves to each other quickly in Ollivander’s (the old man thinks it’s curious whenever two young witches or wizards come in to buy their wands together – binds them from the start, perhaps?) before their parents escort them off, both looking somewhat askance at the other. Finally, as he hugs his daughter on Platform 9 ¾, the train venting steam and ready to leave, John tells her quietly to be careful around the Morningstars. He’d just feel better if she did.

Chloe humors her father, is kissed by her mother, and then spends the entire ride to school in a compartment with Samael – or, as he tells her to call him, Sam – because he doesn’t want to sit with his older siblings, and no one else wants one of them hanging around causing trouble. Chloe thinks he’s nice, if clearly unused to interacting with normal people, but things take a turn for the unfortunate at the Sorting that evening. It’s gone along ordinarily enough (“Decker, Chloe” – “GRYFFINDOR!”, “Espinoza, Daniel” – “HUFFLEPUFF!”) But right after “Lopez, Ella,” becomes a Ravenclaw, “Morningstar, Samael,” is called up to the stool – and doesn’t even get the Hat on his head before it starts screaming “SLYTHERIN!” at the top of its lungs, and doesn’t seem able to recover for several minutes. It finally manages to finish (“Smith, Mazikeen” doesn’t quite send the Hat over the edge, though she also ends up in Slytherin PDQ) but that, to say the least, was a noticeable way to begin.

Things get worse when the Chamber of Secrets is opened and Muggle-borns are attacked. Half the school thinks the Heir of Slytherin is Harry Potter, and the other half is more than convinced that it’s Sam Morningstar, given the Hat’s gibbering meltdown over him at the Welcoming Feast. Chloe doesn’t think it’s either. She and Sam aren’t exactly friends, especially given the rivalry between their houses, but they manage to remain on more or less cordial terms, even throughout the difficult year. Chloe very much doesn’t want Hogwarts closed. She just got here – she doesn’t want to have to up and leave.

(Harry Potter saves the day, as it turns out, Harry Potter does.)

Sam Morningstar almost doesn’t return for his second year, feeling marked out by the events of the first, but in the end, he does. He does not make sense to most people. He is a brilliant student who never seems to pick up a book, enjoys the preferential treatment that as a Slytherin, he is given by Snape – and then talks back to the Potions master when he bullies Chloe. He forges an unexpected relationship with Remus Lupin, where he occasionally stumbles across his cohort in suspected Chamber of Secrets crime. He and Harry seem as opposite as it is possible to get, but two black-haired boys with strange pasts and stranger presents, about whom a touch of destiny clings – perhaps not so much.

(Remus Lupin resigns at the end of that year, and Sam’s waning faith in father figures just about disappears for good.)

Third year is Triwizard year. Fourth years and below are not, of course, permitted to attend the Yule Ball, but Sam contrives to get himself asked by a Ravenclaw seventh-year, Linda Martin, with whom he’s formed a certain friendship. They dance a few times, but he spends most of the night after that staring at Chloe Decker, who was asked by that absolute prat, the Gryffindor fifth-year Marcus Pierce. They’re – well, they’re friends by now, somehow still ignoring the ever-present Gryffindor/Slytherin divide, and frankly, if all was fair, he would have asked her. Or so he tells himself. He’s not nearly as self-assured around her (American half-blood, his friends say incredulously, where are your standards, Samael?) as he’d like.

Then Cedric Diggory is killed, and Voldemort returns, and petty considerations like the Yule Ball don’t matter anymore.

Samael gets kicked out of the house – and for that matter, changes his name to Lucifer – in the summer before fourth year, when his mother insists that he prepare to uphold the Morningstar name with the Death Eaters. He refuses point-blank. There’s a flaming row, and she orders him to leave until he comes to his senses. He ends up in the Leaky Cauldron, tending bar and clearing tables for Tom, for most of the rest of the summer. None of his siblings lift a finger to help him – not even Azrael, his favorite sister, who’s graduated from Hogwarts and gone abroad – and his resentment burns to the core. He grows a foot and changes his name and is barely recognizable when he gets back to school that fall, Professor Dolores Umbridge has inflicted her delightful self on the place, and Lucifer Morningstar is well and truly born.

“You need to stop acting like this,” Chloe tells him, in one of the rare moments she can get through to him – after another party, another bout of rule-breaking, lashing out at every single stupid Educational Decree there is, prevented from losing Slytherin too many points because the Inquisitorial Squad are all merciless suck-ups, and won’t dock their own house just because Lucifer is an idiot. “Samael – ”

She sees the look on his face, and catches herself. “Lucifer.” It’s clear she still can’t get her mouth around the name, her mind around the idea that this angry young man is the boy she first met. “Lucifer, I’m serious, I think she’ll really hurt you.”

Lucifer laughs. Ignores her. Blows her off, because of course he does. Looks down, later, at the words etched shining across the back of his hand.

I must not tell lies.

And thinks that the old bat need not have bothered with that, because oh no, he does not tell lies. He is starting to think he’s the only one.

(At the end of the year, when everyone sees Voldemort in the Ministry, when they accept at last that he is back, when Harry Potter is the hero again, Lucifer thinks he could have bloody well told them so.)

Fifth year, and Uriel Morningstar, who started Hogwarts last year, is desperate for his brother to pay attention to him. Wants to be part of Lucifer and Maze’s crowd, the cool Slytherins, but all Lucifer does is ignore, dismiss, or deride him. And yet, he pays ridiculous attention to that American half-blood, the Gryffindor, Chloe Decker. Everything she says, Lucifer hangs on. Has gotten more oddly protective of her than ever, their relationship odd and undefined and not quite more than friends, but not that either. Dan Espinoza, that gormless Hufflepuff, has been hanging around her as well, as if there needs to be any more proof of how low Lucifer has set his standards.

Uriel is the good son, the one who actually wants to do what he’s supposed to, for his mother to notice him – not just Lucifer, always Lucifer, even though he’s rejected the family and broken her heart. His brother was always the favorite, and finally, on the night the Death Eaters attack the school, as upon the lightning-struck tower, Albus Dumbledore meets his end, as there is fighting in the corridors, Uriel seizes his chance.

He darts around a corner, hides in the chaos. Pulls out his wand, points it at Chloe’s back. Remembers that you have to mean Unforgivable Curses. And thinks that he does, in fact, very much mean this one.

“Avada Kedavra!”

He is still a second-year, small and undersized, and as much as he thinks he has what it takes to kill, all that results is a weak scatter of green sparks. He braces himself to try again.

Then he glances up, sees his older brother running for him like a madman, sees the look of sheer, consuming terror on Lucifer’s face, sees Lucifer raise his wand, and then he doesn’t see anything else, ever again.

Sixth year is a strange, slow, shattered sort of hell.

Hogwarts is barely Hogwarts. Harry Potter and his friends, Weasley and Granger, are gone, rumored to be carrying out Dumbledore’s secret mission, but nobody has any idea what that is. The Death Eaters run the place with an iron fist, Snape is Headmaster, detention involves practicing the Cruciatus Curse on first-years, and Lucifer will not talk to Chloe, no matter how hard she tries. She is worried sick about him, and yet she can’t understand why she hasn’t been called in for questioning about her blood status. She’s well aware that she should be among the first to go, but the Death Eaters oddly seem to overlook it, or at least not care. (Which is, of course, most unlike them.)

Lucifer has odd injuries, strange actions. Chloe supposes he’s trying to distance himself from her to protect her – but she thinks the Carrows are torturing him, worse even than Neville Longbottom, the purebloods who won’t give in even when they should be the first in line to welcome the new regime. Chloe was in Dumbledore’s Army in fourth year with Dan and Ella; they try to protect the younger kids as best they can, but they’re all wondering how much longer they can take this. Disappearances are daily. Most of them don’t come back. The Daily Prophet is printing lies, the Ministry is a mouthpiece of the Dark Lord, and finally that night, the last battle, the final showdown, when Harry Potter returns and the castle makes its stand, before the bombardment starts –

Chloe and Lucifer lock eyes, across from where they’re standing. Nobody was sure they should let Lucifer stay behind at all, but Minerva McGonagall insisted that he had earned it.

Chloe feels, then, the weight of everything they have not said, everything they have kept silent, kept apart. He told her that his brother Uriel died in the castle attack last year, she knows he must be upset about that, and yet, on the eve of everything ending, she would give anything for one of those smashed Time Turners in the depths of the Department of Mysteries. Wants to turn it back, wants, somehow, to start again. To even have the chance.

Then the Death Eaters’ spells begin hitting the shield, and it is gone.

In the years after the Battle of Hogwarts, Chloe does her best to get on with her life, somehow. She returns to the rebuilt castle to finish her seventh year. She graduates with high N.E.W.Ts, starts dating Dan, and they get married and have a daughter, Beatrice. She takes a job as an Auror at the Ministry, under her old classmate, Harry, and one day, finds her own file. It’s been altered. Her blood status was changed from “half-blood” to “pure-blood,” and she has no idea why. But that must be the reason she was protected during that last, hellish year at Hogwarts under the Death Eaters. Lucifer changed it somehow.

God, she misses him. She takes all sorts of strange and difficult cases, rounding up the remnants of Voldemort’s followers. Has to remind herself that Lucifer is dead, because otherwise she’ll get an odd sort of sensation that she’ll turn around and see him. No sign of Maze, either; they got to be an odd sort of friends at the end, but Maze must have died as well. That’s it. They’re both dead. Gone.

(It’s hard to grieve without a body, without a final confirmation. It’s hard for the human mind to close a door, when the whispering always remains, the slightest chance.)

She and Dan both work hard. Too hard, probably, and things are more and more on the rocks, to which Chloe responds by burying herself in more work. There’s an explosive argument one night, Dan saying that he’s sorry he can’t be Morningstar for her, everyone at Hogwarts knew they had eyes for each other, they were in love, it would have been different if Lucifer lived. Chloe’s shocked, but she also can’t manage to deny it; she’s spent one too many nights alone with the memories. Dan sees it in her eyes, and something goes out of him.

They try to keep it cordial for Trixie. They still have to see each other at work. Chloe can’t imagine that this is ever going to stop, or change, or be different.

Finally, Harry knocks on Chloe’s door one day. Says he has something he wants her to check out. Some kind of tavern in Knockturn Alley, called Lux. Someone there who makes deals, this favor for that, this rare item for another, breaks artifact laws or at least soundly bends them, the sort of person that would make Percy Weasley break out in hives from a mile off. Rumored to have returned to the country after many years away, studying even obscurer and deeper magic. Wants her to have a quick visit, and see if this bloke is any kind of threat.

(There might be a strange look in Harry’s eyes, but Chloe misses it.)

And so, she walks down to Knockturn Alley that night, wand in her sleeve, Auror badge clipped under her robe, grim and set and ready to get this over with. Finds the place easily enough, ducks in. Despite its name, Lux is dim, lit by bobbing enchanted orbs, a rougher clientele than the Leaky Cauldron sipping exotic libations, watching her with beady eyes. Even with an effort made to scuff up, it’s fairly clear she doesn’t belong here.

Piano music drifts from the back of the house. A tall shadow bends over it, playing intently, and something in Chloe seizes up so hard she can’t breathe. Can’t think. Can’t hope.

The music stops. The man looks up.

“Hello, Detective,” Lucifer Morningstar says, and smiles. “It’s been a very long time.”

[jonathanfdixon]

#Repost @watershedclt ・・・ We wanted to thoughtfully consider not only how to address the ongoing refugee border crisis but also how to share meaningful action steps in response for us as the church. In the fourth chapter of the book of Luke, the author gives us a curious juxtaposition. The chapter begins with the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. There, Jesus refuses the devil’s offers of power, privilege, and comfort. And then, as if part of the same story (because remember, all those chapter and verse numbers were added later), Jesus enters a synagogue in his home town of Nazareth and reads the following from the Jewish scriptures: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to liberate the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Could it be that our present cultural moment has laid before us the very temptation of Jesus? Presented with offers of comfort, privilege, and power, will we remain silent in the face of oppression within our midst? Or will we, with Jesus, recall the prophetic words of his own mother who, while pregnant with Jesus sung that God has: Pulled the powerful down from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty-handed. It is easy to feel powerless when we witness the scope of evil being perpetuated at our borders and within our communities. But we do not have to be silent. The New York Times column below offers productive action steps to better understand the crisis at hand and to speak out in resistance of it. https://ift.tt/2KLXE7J In addition there is a local group organizing aid in Charlotte with whom we would like to connect you: https://ift.tt/2RIR2Yj https://ift.tt/2KQ4fxR

[pyrocia-blog]

     8.  black  clover  verse.

     in  charlotte’s  black  clover  verse,  she  comes  initially  comes  from  the  clover  kingdom’s  noble  district ... however,  her  standing  is  nowhere  near  that  of  say  the  vermilion  family  or  the  silva  family.      she  is  indeed  a  magic  knight  who  often  goes  out  of  her  way  to  venture  out  &&  research  different  types  of  magic,  reporting  to  both  her  captain  as  well  as  the  wizard  king  himself  so  that  he  can  witness  his  passion  for  himself ... a  rather  unique  job  for  someone  of  her  rank.

     in  terms  of  her  rank,  she  currently  stands  as  senior  magic  knight  originally  being  part  of  the  crimson  lion  kings  squad  when  fuegeleon  vermilion  was  the  captain.      despite  still  having  an  affiliation  to  the  lions ... she  mostly  reports  to  the  wizard  king  more  then  anyone  else.

     with  her  magic  attribute,  she  specialises  in  fire  recovery  magic  &&  fire  creation  magic.  her  recovery  magic  consists  of  a  spells  from  a  three  leafed  clover  grimoire  fire  recovery  magic:  phoenix  gaze  &&  phoenix  blanket.      her  creation  magic  which  she  uses  when  in  combat  are  fire  creation  magic:  phoenix  armour  &&  phoenix  spear.

     her  goal  is  to  reach  grand  magic  knight  to  make  sure  both  the  wizard  king  &&  and  the  clover  kingdom  are  protected  from  any  threats ... with  the  use  of  her  fire  magic ... she  believes  that  this  is  possible.

[mistresstrevelyan]

Livia or Emma for the oc meme?

Full Name: Emma Charlotte HarringtonGender and Sexuality: Cis Female, BisexualPronouns: She/Her/HersEthnicity/Species: Irish/Gaelic Human with Welsh rootsBirthplace and Birthdate: Sligo, Ireland, 25.7.2034 (Making her 42 after getting defrosted in FO4)Guilty Pleasures: Handheld games. She adores them and plays them whenever she has a moment. There’s a FO4 equivalent of Flight Rising Meets Neopets in her ‘verse that she’s absolutely addicted to. Also, visual novels (Otome!)!!!Phobias: Anything and everything involving ice. (Duh) Other than that, she hates anything or anyone touching her hair without consent. Which is why she puts it up in a bun at first and then cuts it off for a style similar to Cassandra’s in DAI. What They Would Be Famous For: Being an excellent lawyer already netted her some fame but other than that…..maybe her very frequented blog where she reviews Visual Novels? Emma is a very introverted lady, fame really isn’t on her agenda.What They Would Get Arrested For: Before the nukes? Nothing. After the nukes? Murder, theft, breaking into buildings (Not all of them were abandoned) and blowing up the Prydwen come to mind immediately.OC You Ship Them With: Rhiannon Cousland tops the list here tbh. Followed by Katja Shepard.OC Most Likely To Murder Them: In her case I can’t really think of one who qualifies tbh. Favorite Movie/Book Genre: Cheesy old school movies from the 30ties-50ties, esp. huge epics like Spartacus, Quo Vadis, Ben Hur, Cleopatra……and their cheaper counterparts from the sixties. Yes, Emma enjoys toga & sandal epics like THIS:

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: Movies that rely far too much on CGI. See, she HATED Gladiator while thoroughly enjoying the C-Movie you see above. Honestly? It’s where Emma and I would disagree a lot but yeah, her taste in movies is very questionable, lmao.Talents and/or Powers: Emma was a kickass family lawyer, that’s what immediately comes to mind. And out of my OCs she is probably the most natural leader (With Eluned Mahariel, Colette Lavellan and Darth Muirnara close behind. At 42 years of age with 15+ years of leadership experience in an extremely competitive field, she knows how to bring people together, how to inspire them, how to build bridges and how to listen. She has a knack for enforcing authority without pissing people off (for the most part). Emma is an extremely organized person who won’t tolerate any bullshit and as such she’s able to survive in the Wasteland. Why Someone Might Love Them: Have you SEEN her smile? But in all seriousness, Emma will empower you like no other person you’ll ever meet. She is extremely attentive and understanding, also, she’ll watch cheesy movies with you and won’t judge you for loving them. :P Honestly, Emma is a grand friend to have. Why Someone Might Hate Them: Emma could be called both high maintenance and bossy. She has a control freak tendency (Can you blame her though?) and while she’s understanding, she’s unyielding, sometimes stuck in her ways, and she has an extremely good memory. If you’ve pissed her off once, chances are she’ll hold a grudge.How They Change: Emma goes through quite a bit of development and not all of it is for the better. Letting her guard down she learns to believe in a team and a family again. That strengthens her both mentally and physically, opening her up to recovery. HOWEVER: She also develops a NASTY vengeful side which probably peaked when she seduced Kellog into a relationship under an alias only to murder him in cold blood after he is of no further use to her. She also refuses synth!Shaun, having him taken in by the Railroad. She can’t stand the sight of him. Not because he’s a synth but because children cannot just be replaced/swapped out like that. And she is supported in setting her boundaries like that both by her lovers (Preston, Danse, Piper) and her friends. Emma doesn’t get Bethesda’s forced Happily Ever After after just watching her son die. And that’s OKAY.Why You Love Them: I love Emma because she is a lot of things I wish I could be. Elegant, self assured, extremely successful and glamorous. Being my oldest OC she is also among my most proficient and charming. Ravishingly beautiful (That red hair gained her quite a few nicknames, lmao), she is…..the golden child with a poisonous streak. I love seemingly “perfect” characters who don’t just have a tragic backstory but are also fucked up by it. And boy, is Emma ever fucked up by losing her husband and child. PTSD, guilt, a growing sadistic streak towards those who wronged her (Kellog….Jesus…..don’t get me started)…..she’s really fascinating to me to explore because most of my lasses improve as their journeys continue…….Emma’s story is the reverse. And that makes her a gift to me as a writer/player because I LOVE heroines who smash stereotypes.

[hiddenknives]

@137b31​ said: “I got you all of your favorite snacks.” /for charlotte. finger guns

The gangly ten year old looked as cute as a button with the blanket pulled up to her chin and her stuffed animals, plus one loaned from Maya, arranged around her on the couch. The flu had been real but she convinced Art to let her stay home another day. There was a lot to be said about her (mostly harmless) knack for manipulation. Nature, nurture, survival mechanism? One day Art would catch on...or maybe he already had. He was working in the adjoining room but he could probably hear her chattering to herself, her stuffed animals, and the TV.

“Thank yoouuuuu.” She wiggled up into a sitting position, it was past lunchtime so there was no threat of being sent to school should she make a miraculous recovery. The level of sugar in some of those snacks would certainly help. She had subtly requested Teddy Grahams (a classic), pretzels, a box of Nutty Buddys, and gatorade (it was never Marion’s electrolyte beverage of choice - far too much sugar).

“We can share if you’d like- unless you already had a snack back at the bat cave.” Statements like those troubled her at night, she was old enough to know that it wasn’t normal. For now though, it was funny. “And coffee doesn’t count as a snack.”

[untothisstorm]

😚 @ charlotte

Nonverbal Starters // 😚 Kiss my muse on the cheek

The sound of the front door closing in the dead of night set Charlotte on edge but she heard it lock and recognized the familiar, steady tread of Delphine’s leather boots. She finished snack and skittered out of the kitchen, her long black hair flying behind her.

"Auntie Delphine, you’re back!” Charlotte whisper-yelled, wrapping her arms around Delphine’s middle. She received the kiss with a giggle and gave Delphine a big kiss on the opposite cheek, before pulling away to reveal a big smile that had a small gap towards the back of her mouth. “How was your trip? I lost a tooth, I only have a few more to go before I get all my adult teeth.”