Miranda Charleston
From Changeling Venue
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| Seeming | Fairest Flowering |
|---|---|
| Court | Autumn Court •••• |
| Freehold | Gainesville, FL |
| Player | Amanda González |
Name: Miranda Charleston
Seeming: Fairest
Kith: Flowering
Freehold: Youthful Springs, Gainesville, FL
Motley: TBA
Appearance: Long brunette hair reminiscent of bare bark and dying leaves cascades to her waist, intertwined with the crimson, orange, and golden flowers of Autumn. Whenever Miranda walks past, an unusually brisk breeze follows, even in the thickest heat of the day. Delicate leaves and wisps of smoke follow her steps, and if one listens closely enough he will notice a sharp crunching sound, as if she were always treading on dead leaves. Her dark brown eyes sparkle with an otherworldly light. Occasionally nearby plants wither for no apparent reason. A soft aroma accompanies Miranda, but it is distinct and easy recognizable as the sweet smell of dying flowers.
Relevant Mechanics:
Striking Looks 4, Autumn Mantle 3 (USA-SE-LC-0803-87508)
Contents |
Childhood:
Melissa Chesterton was born in 1971 to a well-to-do Baptist gentry family in southern Georgia. She lived on an idyllic large plantation with many gardens and wandering animals and thus grew up with a love of nature. Flowers of all sorts were her favorites, though she loved all plants. The story of the Garden of Eden was her favorite part of the whole Bible, except for the whole “original sin of woman” part. She believed she could rise above that and better herself, whatever her preacher said. She created and tended her own themed gardens, though it was difficult to obtain the ideal plants in her area. There were no large gardening stores in the area; all of the garden centers in the area were Mom-and-Pop little shops.
Melissa did well in school, academically and socially, and was especially gifted in the sciences. She graduated from her small high school near the top of the class. Her parents fully expected that to be the end of her education, having never attended college themselves. They encouraged her to marry a young Southern gentleman and former schoolmate of hers after he graduated from college and inherited his father’s very successful business. Though she soon grew to love this true gentleman, who proved to be nothing short of completely kind, affectionate, and polite, she had larger ambitions than a life of being a housewife. She pleaded with this boyfriend for his support, and seeing that she would always have regrets if she didn’t follow this dream, he readily agreed: she would go on to college and get a degree. Or two, she teased with a smile.
Adulthood:
Georgia Southern University seemed the ideal match: a small town, close to home and close to open fields of flowers and pure wilderness. Melissa quickly found her ideal major, but just as quickly realized that majoring in Gardening Sciences would lead her nowhere except back to running a large Southern plantation as a housewife. She instead decided to instead major in Business Administration with a minor in Gardening Sciences. To her surprise, she found that she excelled in all of her business courses as well as she did in her gardening sciences classes. However, there was definitely a different, colder crowd that flocked to business, even at her small university. But Melissa refused to let her cut-throat fellow business students affect either her studies or her kind nature. Though at times she ran sobbing home to her beloved gardens and boyfriend, she persevered and managed to graduate near the top of her class.
Amazed at her success and encouraged by her boyfriend, Melissa applied to the Master of Business Administration program at Emory University…and was accepted. Two years later, she received her prestigious degree and an offer of her dream job: the assistant CEO of Esposito Lawn and Garden Center, a large chain of gardening supply stores in North Florida and Southern Georgia. The headquarters of Esposito was even near her hometown, just about an hour south. She immediately accepted the offer.
Melissa spent the next five years happily at Esposito, where she could pursue both her passion of nature and of the corporate world. After those five years, a lot of events happened at once. Melissa’s boss suddenly retired, claiming ill health. Melissa was unanimously elected to be promoted to CEO to replace him. Her boyfriend’s father officially passed the family business onto him. And, happiest of all to Melissa, as she and that boyfriend of nine years were celebrating over dinner at fancy restaurant, he finally asked for her hand in marriage. It seemed that the Good Lord had spoiled Melissa sweet.
Capture:
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The following week the former CEO invited Melissa to dinner in this cozy little restaurant tucked away in the woods, so that he could give her all of the advice, tips, and secrets he had accumulated from years of experience. Melissa already knew everything he talked to her about, yet she was damned by her Southern manners to listen politely. Bored and rather antsy from this long lecture, she lost track of how many drinks she consumed and became a bit too tipsy to drive home. Her former boss offered to drive her home, and even to help her fetch her car later when she felt better. Melissa accepted his offer gratefully.
Melissa dozed off in the car, lulled to sleep by the soothing sights and sounds of the peaceful woodlands around her. She was awakened only when rough hands – rough, furry, hands with claws, she noticed with a jolt – pulled her out of the car and slammed her against something thorny.
No longer did the crafty, witty, slightly balding former CEO stand before her, but rather a sharp-toothed and snarling half-fox, half-man. Melissa’s screams went unheard as the Loyalist dragged her into the Hedge to the Fae Princess waiting for them.
Arcadia:
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The Fae Princess needed someone to maintain her expansive, pristine, unearthly beautiful gardens, someone intelligent and capable who could both manage other slaves and care for her flowers and plants. She found that someone perfectly embodied in Melissa.
To this day she has trouble remembering what her time in Arcadia was like. She remembers that first night, sobbing into her slender hands, choosing her new name of Miranda Charleston, mourning over the life and name she instinctively knew were forever lost to her. She remembers gardens and castles of unspeakable beauty and terror. She remembers performing her new duties well enough that even her mistress could find no fault with her, yet still being beaten merely for entertainment. She remembers red, orange, and golden flowers blooming and dying at her feet. It was all the most beautiful nightmare, but as it is with nightmares, only glimpses are remembered upon waking.
Escape:
One day a group of new slaves was having difficulty pruning the trees on the outer edge of the Princess’s castle. Irritated, Miranda sent those slaves away to handle simpler tasks and went to deal with the stubborn plants herself.
It was a rare moment: she was completely alone. Miranda leaned her delicate face against the smooth bark of one of the trees, closed her eyes, and inhaled deeply. The air was sweet; the breeze danced with her long brown hair; the wind sang the haunting lullabies of Arcadia. It was a brief reprieve from the desire to be free, from the wrath she felt for her captors, from the fear of death and worse, from the sorrow of the life she had to leave behind. Then one by one those emotions came back, but each was drowned out by fear. As they always were.
Miranda sighed. She slowly raised her head and opened her eyes. Then she blinked hard. Near her, just over the small stone wall surrounding the outer gardens, was a large group of Changelings led by a girl, who looked as if they were literally running for their lives. She scrambled on top of the wall for a better view, uncertain as to what else to do.
The child Changeling, never stopping or missing a step, looked Miranda dead in the eye. “Come on, come on! I know the way home!” Home. Instinct took over: there were no hesitations, no second thoughts. Miranda leapt off the stone wall and ran with the other Changelings, all following this strange girl. Miranda ran until she thought she would die, then ran on, and on, until she lost all sense of time, place, and direction. Then the terrible magnificence of Arcadia was gone, and she was free. And then she realized she didn’t have a home.
Tallahassee and the Lost:
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Pittsburgh, Autumn 1998. Eight years in Arcadia, Miranda realized. And her life, completely gone. Well, she sure as Arcadia wasn’t going to stay in a huge city without trees and flowers for whatever remained of her broken existence. Miranda spent half a year traveling from city to city, making her way south, falling in and out with the local Changelings, never staying too long. No place seemed right.
Eventually Miranda found her way to Tallahassee, Florida, where a new branch of Esposito had recently opened. She definitely had the foresight to never set foot near that place, but instead thought it would be amusingly ironic to work for a small family-owned garden center, Tallahassee Nurseries. Even without proof of her college degrees, Miranda wheedled her way into a management position, albeit a low one. But her captivating personality, sharp business skills, unnatural good fortune, and Arcadian talents with plants caused her to rise to co-owner within a year.
Also in Tallahassee was a small group of Changelings. When Miranda had come to that city in Summer 1999 and decided to stay, she begrudgingly came to all of the Freehold’s gatherings, not expecting to find the purpose and companionship she sought. However, Miranda was startled: she found her calling in the Autumn Court. Miranda knew she did not ostentatiously strike fear in the very souls of others – how on earth could a florist do that, she scoffed at weak-minded Changelings who mentioned it – but realized that she could evoke the emotion in others in subtler ways. Arcadia had twisted her gentle nature to be like poisoned honey: beautiful and sweet on the outside, but dark and dangerous beneath the surface. One never knew quite how Miranda would act or react, and fear of the unknown is the greatest fear of them all. In addition, she remembered that all throughout her time in Arcadia, fear had been her constant companion, her bitter shadow. She sought to understand and learn how to use her own fear. Above all she desired her captor to feel that same wretched fear that brought the bravest and brightest of souls to the deepest of abject despair. With her strong and practiced leadership skills, her superior understanding of fear, and her prowess with magic, Miranda became Queen of Autumn when the changing of the seasons occurred.
Her life wasn’t completely gone after all.
Gainesville and the Lost:
Another year came and passed. The owner of the Nurseries suggested that Miranda open a branch store in another college town, Gainesville, which would obviously be called something other than Tallahassee Nurseries. Miranda seized the opportunity, having more than satisfactorily strengthened the Autumn Court as well as the entire small Freehold in Tallahassee. So in Summer 2001, Miranda moved to Gainesville and opened up Native Nurseries off 13th Street. The garden center quickly prospered, and normal life went on well.
Changeling life in Gainesville, however, was in need of a strong leader of the small Autumn Court. She seized this opportunity as well. Miranda arrived fashionably late to her first Gainesville Freehold meeting, both beautiful and terrible in her mein. With the help of fellow Autumn courtier David, Miranda was easily able to obtain the throne come the changing of the seasons.
Miranda provided strong and consistent leadership for a number of years to the Freehold of Gainesville. However, her confidence in her abilities to be Queen was badly – and perhaps irrevocably – shaken when Zoe Edwards came to Gainesville and inexplicably seized the Crown. David assured Miranda that everything would work out in the end, and a few years later Miranda became Queen again with David as her advisor. But those Changelings who knew Miranda as Queen before Zoe note the remarkable differences in her demeanor and question her current capability to lead.
Maybe she should just go back to Tallahassee.
Allies, Enemies, and In-Between:
David Webber Former fellow Courtier and advisor, David wandered into the Hedge alone once too many times. His death still distraughts Miranda.
Zoe Edwards At first bitter enemies, with the Crown now re-established in Zoe's hands, the two have an odd sort of warm respect for each other.
Brand Brand's naivete and goodness reminds Miranda - one might say wistfully - of who she used to be...
Aretas Having passed the crown to her on and off for a number of years, the two have a distant respect for each other.
Sylfaen Wynters Appropriate for the two chilly seasons, Miranda and Sylfaen have a good friendship. Sylfaen is helping Miranda deal with David's death.
Tommy Blue The Changeling who led Miranda from Arcadia to the human world.
Quotes:
"Flower...power...?" - Miranda
"David's death has taught us all a lesson about the importance of fear...and the dangers of lacking it." - Miranda
Rumors:
Miranda blames herself for David's death.
