Skai

CHILDREN OF LEE - THE FIRST GENERATION OF SUPERHEROES

Elle Miller

---

“I could take it.”

Elle heard Henry’s reply and turned her head towards him, still slowly making her way towards her friends on the couch. She’d been unsure of his reaction and hadn’t expected anything but a shrug, and yet… “I could take it.” The simple words meant more than what was implied. It sounded heroic. Elle’s eyes followed his body movement and noticed that he was rubbing his forearm. She looked back up at him immediately and simply nodded when he continued. She couldn’t imagine what pain he went through, and she also couldn’t imagine what the damage the rock would have caused if he hadn’t been there. The whole town owed Olin for what he did.

Helen came rocketing out of nowhere and onto the couch, and Elle had heard bits and pieces of what the fastest boy in town was saying to Willow before Henry snorted in amusement. Elle was glad that his boisterous mood had returned and smiled back at him. The hard conversation now blown away with the idea of hearing what Willow saw of the rock monster. Elle noticed the bit of space Henry had left for her and took it. With her own mischievous mood returning she grinned wide as the smell of mary jane hit her in Helen’s presence. “Girl, you’re fried.” She looked at Helen and raised her brows to share her amusement.

Her attention then turned to Dexter, who was now giving Henry a thumbs up. Her balance shifted, the iced drink finally hitting her, and she swayed a second before resting a hand on Henry’s arm to hold herself still. “What’s the plan, then?” She asked no one in particular, glancing at the three of them on the couch. She looked to her friend, who was still locked in Helen’s hug. “Did you see something, Willow?” Dexter’s words about a manhole were now catching up to her and she removed her hand from Henry’s arm to stand straighter. “If you’re going looking for who’s behind this, I’m coming with.”

Recollections: Magnanimous

“You should be there to go meet this girl.”

Arabelle glanced away from Georgie as her attention was turned towards Liao. What was it they were saying? She simply gave him a small nod, still a little confused. The skull was pulled from her hand and Arabelle returned to Georgie in time to hear her explanation of her “Garden.” Arabelle blinked and her mind raced. Then what Georgie said made perfect sense as a small tear in the fabric of reality was opened near her head. Arabelle peered inwards. Fields of bushes and flowers lay beyond, and… all of the sealed objects that once stood in the manor oddly stood between them. Arabelle watched the skull land inside like it was nothing but an unwanted piece of bone among Georgie’s collection. She could have peered inside for much longer, but the portal quickly dissipated into nothingness. The night was cold and dark again. As Georgie returned to her tea, Arabelle was left to compare Georgie’s expanse of lush green to her own bare innards of a mirror portal. If only she could decorate it.

“Did she just walk away with the Horned God in her personal dimension?”

Arabelle pressed her lips together and took the seat that Georgie had just been in. She pulled her coat closer to her neck and took a moment to think about the situation as the others continued to plan. Oscar volunteered himself to go with her to meet the healer. She had to agree that he was the most pleasant of the Vanburens. Trisha and Shane agreed to go with the group that wanted to trap the cult. Arabelle was more concerned for that group’s safety than she would verbally admit. At least the cult would be distracted while her group spoke with the healer, but was it really the right move? Would they be able to handle a confrontation between the few of them that were going? She wasn’t sure if she should voice that opinion or not in case it dampened their spirit going into it.

She heard Ezra’s quiet words to Sabrina. He was right to say that Georgie shouldn’t be left alone with this cult on the loose. While the cult had no idea that Georgie now possessed the Horned God, she wondered if their tracking spells would latch on to her from now on. It wouldn’t be right to leave her alone now. Arabelle secretly hoped that Sabrina wouldn’t go with the group that would confront the cult. Especially now that Ezra agreed to join Arabelle’s attempt to contact the healer.

“I don’t know if anyone here has anything that makes them stealthy.”

Arabelle gave him a sideways glance at this. Was he forgetting to mention her abstraction on purpose? If she had one mental image of the inside of the cult’s compound, she could easily sneak a few of them inside. Getting out would be their only concern, really. Sure, she had a bum shoulder now, but she wouldn’t need to fight. She just needed to get them in and out. “At the very least, I know that I can get us quietly through just about any locked door.” So he was offering himself up in case things went south. Perhaps she could be the getaway car if he depleted himself without her help in the first place.

Arabelle rose slowly as Blu attempted to offer his help. She didn’t know Blu much, but at least he appeared to be selfless. He could make people feel better? She wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but perhaps it was a way to manipulate others emotions. It could come in handy for either team if applied the right way. That would be up to Blu to decide.

With her thoughts in order, Arabelle glanced at Oscar before looking Ezra’s way. “I think it would be best if Georgie came with us, if she chooses to leave the house. I don’t want her alone if she is to keep the skull, and I certainly don’t want her near the cult. If the others decide to confront them, Georgie should be far away from the fight that might ensue.

I don’t want the healer to know that Georgie has the skull, either. Instead, I think we should tell her that the skull is being kept in a place we can decide upon. If the cult attempts to retrieve the skull from that place, we will know that she isn’t worthy of our trust.”

Arabelle leaned back in the chair. “If the cult comes for Georgie, I can also get her to a safe location with only a mirror. The healer doesn’t know how I escaped from the manor, thankfully, so she won’t be expecting that either. In fact I don’t think any of the cult members know, but they must think I have some sort of way to get in and out of a room with no exit. Otherwise their hound would have gotten me.” She tried not to grimace in response to that horrible memory.

“I also want to make it clear that I don’t think the healer will lie to us if we speak to her. I can’t think of a reason why she’d hand the skull over to me when she could have easily overpowered me. I hit my shoulder when I ran from the hound, but I'm sure she could have done worse if she wanted to.” Arabelle tried not to flush with embarrassment as she admitted to that.

CHILDREN OF LEE - THE FIRST GENERATION OF SUPERHEROES

Elle Miller

---

Elle tried not to look too proud as the crowd began to cheer her victory. In fact, she wasn’t sure she’d have made that last throw if it weren’t for Evelyn’s power-up. Which was pretty unexpected and nearly threw her off guard. Should she thank Evelyn for that? Nah, it wasn’t like she needed it. She was doing just fine on her own and it wasn’t like she was desperate to win either.

Still, the cheering of the crowd, whom she’d never heard cheer for her before, and Evelyn’s aura breeze had her grinning wide as she watched Henry come her way. She happily moved to return the fist bump only to feel utter shock and betrayal as he revealed the drink in his hand. Her jaw dropped. “Congratulations cutie, you’re cold as ice.” Elle looked up at him from the drink. Her shocked expression softened into amusement, and any smart comment she could have given him was lost by the fact that he called her ”cutie”. So she shook her head as she took the bottle from his hand. “You sore loser.” She muttered with a sly grin.

She glanced around once and was glad to see that most of the crowd gathered around the table had returned to the party. Then she used her sleeve to twist off the cap, knelt on one knee, and began to chug at it. Halfway through the bottle she playfully gave Henry the bird and held it in front of her face to hide the slight flushing of her cheeks until she finished. She took a deep breath after and held the bottle high before getting back onto her feet. She swayed a little, but played it off smoothly with a grin as she wiped her mouth with her sleeve. “I’ll get you one day, Olin.” She shook a finger at him, and that was when she noticed Dexter and Willow on the couch.

“Hey, you know Willow, Helen, and I were on Main Street Friday?” She asked Henry, nodding her head towards Willow and Dexter. “We saw everything, but we couldn’t figure out who was behind Rocky Balboa.” She began to move towards the couch, but she looked over at Henry to make sure he would follow. “I’m not sure you want to talk about it, but you might want to hear if Willow found anything.” She cleared her throat a little. “You really stepped up against that thing, by the way.”

Recollections: Magnanimous

Arabelle was still looking at the skull with disdain as Justin made his way over to touch the skull. Her hand held tightly to its base in the fear that he’d snatch it away and her eyebrows furrowed as he continued to touch it, pull away, and touch it again. A random skull? It hadn’t even occurred to her that the healer might have thrown her the wrong sealed apparition. At least this was confirmation, in Justin’s own odd way.

Ezra’s words made her turn her head in his direction. She was glad to hear him support her idea. He was a grown man by the time she was old enough to have a personality; he’d moved out of the house before she was able to know him. Yet he’d picked her up from the hospital, and was now defending her. It was comforting to know she had made one connection with the family today. He held his hand out to her and offered to take the skull but Arabelle didn’t hand it over. He was trustworthy, yes, but something told her not to give the skull away so easily. She was its protector now, until they could find a better place for it.

“Do you have her number?”

Arabelle stiffened and looked at the skull as she realized her answer would be “no.” Her cheeks were just starting to burn with the frustration of it before she was saved by another Vanburen. While she was trying to figure out what her “Garden” was, Arabelle watched Georgie as she offered two plans. Attempt to contact the healer and gain more of her trust, or wait for another ambush with added protection. Justin countered and Arabelle had to agree with him. She had a life outside of the Vanburen home. She couldn’t just abandon it because of this cult.

“Have we thought about just giving them the skull?”

Arabelle’s jaw dropped. Thankfully Shane stepped in to explain why that would be a horrible idea so she wouldn’t have to. Then relief passed through her when he turned to her and agreed to find the healer first, and then Oscar as well. “They were all sealed by dad for a reason and we shouldn’t let them out.” Arabelle felt a pang within her at the mention of James. If he’d been here, he could have settled this easily.

Oscar made a move to touch the skull. Arabelle watched him closely, still reluctant to hand it over to anyone at all. She was still wondering if Georgie could take it when Oscar asked the Vanburen woman about James’s notes. Arabelle didn’t remember seeing anything about this Triple Goddess when she went through them, but there were plenty of apparitions mentioned. She could have overlooked it.

The others continued to talk, either grumbling about the current situation or offering better advice than the last. Georgie revealed that James had in fact mentioned the Triple Goddess and Horned God multiple times. Then she continued to explain the power that the two apparitions would have if together. It was unsettling to think of. She looked back at Ezra, just in case she could see what he was thinking on his face, and he motioned towards Georgie with the hand he’d offered her. Arabelle glanced Georgie’s way only to find Tansy standing before her. The embarrassment that she didn’t have a way to contact the healer returned. This time she didn’t flush- no, instead she eyed Tansy with a look of steel. The girl was spouting subtle accusations at her with a voice that made her feel like she was drowning in corn syrup. Arabelle’s lips parted as if she was going to retaliate, but the little bitch continued. “You must be relieved and there’s nothing wrong with that! You’ve already done so much for this family. If you need help with anything while you’re out of commission, let me know.”

Arabelle’s expression had turned from steel to utterly vexed. She began to bare her teeth as if she had a few indecent words to say and the adopted Vanburen was lucky that she turned away before Arabelle could begin. She shut her mouth, quietly fuming to herself until Georgie got in a few good jabs at Tansy for her. Ezra’s apologetic frown wasn’t enough to settle the simmering feeling within her, but hearing those words from George did the trick.

Arabelle felt her mind settle, but she sent a small huff in Tansy’s direction as she handed the skull over to Georgie. That gesture alone was enough to explain how she stood with Georgie now. She still didn’t know what the “Garden” was, but she felt enough respect towards the younger Vanburen now that she assumed the skull would be safe with her. “What is this Garden, anyways?” She asked quietly so that the others wouldn’t be interrupted. “Is it what you call your abstraction?”

CHILDREN OF LEE - THE FIRST GENERATION OF SUPERHEROES

Elle Miller

---

“Just seemed like you were itching for a game.”

Elle playfully rolled her eyes in response, although Henry was already distracted by the beers. Whatever he may have meant by that comment wasn’t a concern as the intoxication began to settle in. To mask the level of her buzz, Elle stepped forwards and placed both hands on either side of the pong setup. She casually leaned her weight onto her arms and tilted her head like she was waiting for the beer. Switching to a lighter drink seemed like a good idea. Rad Chad really knew how to spike the punch, in a good way.

Henry’s attention was pulled towards the couch to whom he smiled and waved. Elle followed his gaze, secretly hoping that Titus had not returned, and was happy to see Willow sitting where she once sat. She was glad that the other wallflower of the town came out. In fact, she hadn’t seen Willow since Friday evening. Elle was replaying her final words to Willow that evening as she gave her friend a smile as a hello. Either Willow hadn’t searched for any reason behind the golem or she didn’t find anything pressing to tell them sooner. Hell, maybe her parents didn’t let her out of their sight until things cooled off.

Some of the football team nearby began to howl like wolves on a full moon and Elle’s attention returned to her opponent on the other side of the table. One of Elle’s eyebrows rose as she beheld Henry’s massive arm curled to show off the muscle under his scales. The beer was now rolling down his forearm. Elle pulled away from the table as she realized that he was about to bump the beer to her like a volleyball. She took a step back and held her hands in front of her. In one all too fast move the beer was flying towards her. This had to be the most impressive beer toss that Leesburgh High had seen in years.

The beer flew higher than Elle expected. In response she took another step back, hoping no one was too close behind her, and successfully caught the can at chest level. As she uprighted the can she began to shake her head at Henry’s second shotgun of the game, her finger tapping the lid to calm the beer before she cracked it open. “You’re impossible to keep up with,” she said the moment Henry discovered the ball squashed beneath his foot. She laughed quietly to herself. “Y’know, I think Chad goes through more pong balls than the entire state alone.” She quipped with a grin in Chad’s direction. She had to admit that she was pretty funny when she was drinking. Plus, this game was fun. She could feel herself relaxing with each moment. It was the atmosphere or the alcohol to thank for that. The uncomfortable moment with Titus earlier was no longer in mind.

Henry’s next shot tanked. Instead of laughing with him, Elle raised her beer into the air as he lifted his next to his lips. “Hell, I’ll drink on that one too.” Her tone was empathetic as she took a long swig. She leaned forwards to pick up the ball, only then smiling at Henry as she posed for her next shot by leaning on the balls of her feet to get more air over the table. “It’s up to you if we count that one, buut,” she started to say, extending the end of that last word as she tossed the ball towards the cups, “You do have to count this one.” Elle watched the ball fly towards the cups, and rested back on her heels as it sank right into the cup next to the one Henry had sunk his own throw into.

Elle grinned and looked up at Henry for his reaction. She exuded complete confidence in that moment, as if she’d known it would sink before she’d thrown it. Yet to those closest to the table, Elle’s eyes shined with the excitement of actually making the cup.

Recollections: Magnanimous

“Well, Miss Matthews, everything came out okay with your scans. No major tears or fractures to be seen, but you’ll need to follow the usual treatment for dislocations.”

Great.

The doctor before her set down a small stack of instructional and medical papers. Arabelle glanced over them quickly. Fortunately for her, she wouldn’t have to come back for any treatment. She didn’t see anything about seeing a physical therapist but she had an inkling that at least one appointment would be recommended. Arabelle would politely refuse.

“You’ll only need to wear the sling for a few days. I want you to wear it for two nights while you sleep with a pillow tucked under your arm for support.” The doctor continued as she helped Arabelle stick her arm into the fabric trap. Arabelle couldn’t feel a thing in her shoulder, but she knew that it would have hurt to move it without the painkillers.

Once the sling was properly secured, the doctor held up a bottle before slipping it into a paper bag, along with her instructional papers. “Take one pill in the morning and one at night with water and crackers for your stomach. There should be enough to last you until your shoulder is doing better. The papers have information and resources for physical therapy, but you can also look up treatment exercises online through our website.”

“Unless you have any further questions, I think we’re all wrapped up here.” The doctor finished with a smile. Arabelle nodded before pushing herself onto her feet.

“I don’t have any questions now, but if I do I’ll contact a PT.” She smiled at the nurse and took her goody bag, stuffing it into the hand that poked just barely out of the sling. “Thank you, Doctor.”

The doctor returned the smile. “It’s my pleasure, Miss Matthews. Let me help you with your cardigan.” Arabelle watched her with an awkward silence as the doctor turned to the chair by the door. She took a step forward, just in time to prevent the doctor from also picking up the (super fucking weird) ram skull hidden underneath.

Arabelle cleared her throat and scooped it up with her good arm before clutching it to her chest. “Sorry, it’s a- um, a family heirloom. Just want to make sure it doesn’t fall.”

I can never come back here again. Arabelle thought as the doctor raised an eyebrow.

“Mhm”

Yep. Never coming back.

The doctor placed her cardigan over her shoulders, said a short goodbye, and led her far enough out of the wing that Arabelle could find her own way out. Arabelle would have flushed in embarrassment if she hadn’t seen Ezra down the hall.

“Let’s go before they admit me to the psych ward.” Arabelle muttered to Ezra before she continued towards the exit. She wanted to get this ram skull back to the estate as quickly as possible.

---

Arabelle returned to the estate with too much on her mind. As she walked inside, her body shaking without her coat to protect her from the winter night, Arabelle immediately headed for her coat in the closet closest to the door. Thankfully the Vanburens were already gathering for a family meeting and missed the awkward display of Arabelle shuffling the coat over her shoulders. She wasn’t sure how she was going to manage wearing a sling for four days if it was this difficult to wear for an hour.

She could hear the whistle of a kettle from the kitchen. Tea time, right. Who would be making tea without a servant to help? Arabelle figured it was Georgie. She never missed tea time. Arabelle headed down the hall and towards the kitchen, but it seemed that she’d just missed the Vanburen sister. She was hoping not to miss the beginning of the meeting. Although what she had to say would be enough to explain why the cult attacked in the first place, she wanted to know what the others thought had happened first. Well, unless Ezra explained her hospital visit for her before she made it out there. Into the cold, cold night. Arabelle took a breath to compose herself as she made a hot mug of tea with honey to sweeten it. She sipped it on her way towards the others, anxiously pondering their reactions to her side adventure.

She stepped into the freezing air just in time to hear the beginning of the speech.

Arabelle stood a few feet from the circle with her back to the warm light of the estate home. She listened to the ghost facer’s opening lines. He seemed experienced enough to know what steps to take next, and even though he was young… too young, she listened to him closely. To hear that they already knew where the cult had its base was surprising. Arabelle honestly didn’t think the family was smart enough to put in that detective work. Especially within such a short amount of time. She glanced towards Shane for a moment and wondered if she underestimated the hermit, but she also figured it was partly because of Justin that it happened so swiftly.

They hadn’t even put a tarp over the hole in the estate yet. Was that what they were doing instead of working on repairs? Arabelle pressed her lips into a tight line. Was she the only one that cared about the state of their home?

By the end of his monologue Arabelle was fully ready to step forwards to explain the ram skull shoved between her elbow and ribs. Maybe even to object to fighting the cult without reason as well. Unfortunately the other Vanburen’s beat her to it. She was glad to hear one Vanburen was already against the fight. It wasn’t surprising that Oscar was taking Justin’s advice sincerely, since the Vanburen had invited them in the first place. Yet her eyebrows rose as Oscar described the abstractions of the wiccans. He had a point to strike first. Did he really think the others were capable of it? She hadn’t been around to see them in action, but based on her knowledge of their character she was only sure a few of them could hold their own in an offensive position.

“There’s also a healer.” The other expert, Tuyen, mentioned, and it lit a lightbulb in Arabelle’s mind. The healer was the woman that gave her the ram. Arabelle realized that she didn’t even remember her name. She blamed that tiny mistake on the shock of dislocating her shoulder.

"Going to have to put that cult down. Sooner or later."

Shane’s gruff voice sent shivers down her spine and Arabelle turned her head to give him an incredulous look. Was he suggesting what she thought he was suggesting? Yes, they’d broken into the estate, wrecked it beyond simple repair, and attacked them with water, fire, and hellhounds, but from what she gathered from the healer, they were extremely misguided. It didn’t warrant any bloodshed. His first words were enough to leave Arabelle apprehensive of what he had to say next. Still, she found herself surprised by his capabilities as he mentioned maps, the knowledge of a few of the wiccan’s names, and the possible locations of a few. It was enough to make Arabelle consider the quiet, brooding Vanburen in a different light. Perhaps he was capable of all of this before the experts arrived. How much else could he figure out on his own? Arabelle was now considering how much time Shane may have spent in his father’s study, before or after his passing.

Arabelle watched Shane as she finished voicing his thoughts and retreated to the edge of the balcony. He may very well have convinced most of the Vanburens to fight before she could get a say in. Before any others could follow after him, Arabelle took a breath and put her mug into her sling hand. It was time to make her own stand. She kept her head high as stepped her way into the circle, reaching for the ram skull under her arm. As soon as she’d taken her place among them she held it out into the center of the group by its horn.

“This is what they came here for.” Arabelle stated plainly as she looked at each of them. “The Horned God,” Arabelle tried not to visibly shudder as she spoke his name, ”is sealed within this skull.” Just saying it aloud sent shivers down her fingertips, up her arms, and to the back of her neck. His voice was an eerie caress across her mind that threatened to scatter her thoughts. He was still trying to convince her to set him free.

“A woman within the cult- the healer, spoke to me before I escaped. I confronted her in a room where she was searching for this. She is against this Morgana and the Triple Goddesses plan to release him, saying that most of the wiccans are misguided and unaware of what they are doing. What she said could be a ruse, I know, but she still gave this to me for protection.”

She turned towards the Liao ghost detective.

“Why would she hand this over so easily if it is what her leader wants? If this healer is truly against their plans, she may know a way to stop the cult without violence. She could tell us plenty more about this Triple Goddess and any weaknesses as well.” Arabelle glanced at Shane on that note to prove she’d been listening before she spoke to the other Vanburens in the circle. “I think we should try to contact her before we make any hasty decisions.”

Finished with her speech, Arabelle lowered her arm and looked down at the skull. She was careful not to look into its empty eye sockets. “We also need to decide what to do with this in the meantime.” The corners of her mouth tugged downwards in what could only be disdain.

Recollections: Magnanimous

Whoops

Recollections: Magnanimous

Arabelle M. Matthews

"I ask myself every day why I keep coming back."

_______________________________________________ Arabelle Marie Matthews She/Her | 23 | English-American | 5’7” | 135 lbs _______________________________________________ Resilient _______________________________________________ Skills & Talents "I’m just a teacher who grew up taking care of others." ___________________________________ [+] [Teacher] ⫻ Arabelle is patient, attentive, observant, and inquisitive. These are the traits that she chooses to teach her students to be. She applies these traits to her everyday life. [Stealth] ⫻ Thanks to her abstraction, Arabelle can easily appear and disappear from any situation. Locked doors aren’t a thing to her, unless there is no mirror behind it.

Appearance ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "My mom tells me I look like her father and my own father combined. As if I knew what either of them looked like." Arabelle is slightly above average in height. She has a curvy build shaped like an hourglass, and is of a healthy weight instead of a flat stomach or thigh gap. Her hair is an auburn color with loose waves that fall just barely down to the middle of her back. She often clips her hair up so that it is out of her way for work, but lets it down while she is helping around the estate. Her face is in the shape of an apple, with light freckles across her cheekbones and nose thanks to her European descent. Her eyes are brown. Arabelle dresses well under the salary of a teacher. She is often in straight ankle jeans, slacks, or knee length skirts. She often tucks satin tanks, sweaters, blouses, or shirts into her pants. She rarely wears heels because she is on her feet all day. Instead she prefers mules, slip on sneakers, chelsea boots, or flats. Arabelle wears long sleeves to cover the scars from her awakening. There are three scars total. Two slashes on her left forearm and one slash on her upper right arm. They are just thin white lines from her past now.

_{Psychology
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}}
"No one but my students know me well."

MAIN GOAL ⫻ Arabelle just wants to find a piece of life for herself. She’s thought about visiting her family back in England. Maybe she’ll move there to live a different life, but she couldn’t stand to lose her teaching position. To name a specific goal, she wishes to cut her ties to the Vanburen’s eventually.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ The past defines you, but it does not define your future.

SEXUALITY ⫻ Bisexual. Arabelle has only been with men, but she does feel attracted towards women as well.

FEARS ⫻ Arabelle doesn’t have much to lose, but she fears losing her purpose for this world. She also fears that her awakened magic will affect her life in the real world. She even fears that one day she’ll wake up, and it will all have been a dream.

REPUTATION ⫻ Arabelle was always with her mother within the Vanburen estate, so she was known as Marie’s daughter by most of the staff and Vanburen family until she could speak for herself. Among the staff, she was a vibrant and extremely helpful colleague. To the Vanburen children, she was quiet and distant. She may have played with the youngest Vanburens, but today she isn’t sure if any of the children even remember her.

THOUGHTS ABOUT JAMES VANBUREN ⫻ James was a distant father figure to Arabelle. She’d see him around the estate and he was kind to her, but he was a busy man. She only grew close to him after her mother’s passing and her awakening. His death brought a different kind of pain. She didn’t have another emotional breakdown, but she grieved for the loss of her last connection to her mother’s past.

FLAWS ⫻ While the Vanburen children grew up with everything they could ever want, Arabelle did not. Her jealousy and subconscious bitterness towards them have emerged now that the Vanburen’s are returning to the estate. She even spites them for taking too much of her mother’s time, although now that she is older she understands that her mother may have been the only constant in their life other than James.

_{Backstory
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}}
"It was just my mother and I, unless you count the Vanburens as family too."

Arabelle’s mother moved from England to the US to find a better life. How she ended up in Pennsylvania, Arabelle has no idea, but she knows that at 17 it was hard for her mother to find work. She travelled the east coast working part time as kitchen staff for small diners and restaurants until a staff position at the Vanburen estate was advertised in the newspaper. Her mother, recognizing that the pay would be substantially better, immediately convinced the estate’s manager that she’d been a servant to countless Dukes and Duchesses in England. She was hired on that day.

Her mother remained a member of the staff for years. She cooked, cleaned, nannied the kids, served dinner, and tended to the gardens wherever she was needed. She didn’t mean to stay forever. She was putting money away on the side to go to school. She had just been about to sign up for her first year when she found out she was with child.

Arabelle was born, and her mother put her college savings away not for herself, but for her little girl. She continued to work at the Vanburen estate. Arabelle grew up helping her mother with the morning preparations, then she’d go to a nearby public school, and then she’d come home to help her mother with the evening dinner. It wasn’t a perfect life, but it was their own.

Arabelle’s mother never told her who her father was. The only father figure in her life was James Vanburen himself, but he had many children to care for and she often felt jealous of them. Her mother helped raise them after James would find new lovers. Arabelle would be busy helping her mother with work, or she would stand to the side, as she watched her mother care for his kids. She was never sure if any of them returned the same care for her mother or herself, but at some point she stopped caring. She was an outsider within the Vanburen walls. Once she was old enough, she’d leave them for a better life.

As she grew older, Arabelle withdrew herself more and more from the Vanburen’s. Once she was eighteen, her mother surprised her with college funds. She was sad to leave her mother behind, but her mother decided that Araminta was her home. Most of James’s children had left by then. She felt like she was the only thing that remained of James’s past still within the walls. Arabelle left for college that same year.

Arabelle will always remember the night she heard that her mother passed. It was James Vanburen himself that showed up at her door. He was quite distraught, himself. He brought the news that would shatter her world. He told her that she would always be welcomed back to the estate, but Arabelle told him to leave. In her grief and shock, Arabelle smashed the nearest mirror to her and found herself sobbing over her broken reflection. She found herself wishing to be by her mother’s side more than anything. She’d never gotten to say goodbye.

Arabelle slowly moved on. She finished school and began to teach, but she still carried the weight of her past with her. She began to visit the Vanburen estate, and had quietly awkward dinners with James. She wanted to hear stories about her mother, from before she was born and after she left the estate.

She continued to visit him until his death. After his passing, Arabelle couldn't stand to see the estate wither away. Her mother would be turning in her grave. So after school and on the weekends Arabelle would return to the Vanburens to help with the cooking and cleaning. A month after James Vanburen passed she came across a letter from her mother. It had fallen behind a dresser at some time and was forgotten. Arabelle was overcome with the same anguish she felt the day her mother died. She felt an energy from herself erupt and smash a nearby window. As she cleaned up the pieces, she suddenly found herself within the mirror. On the other side of it was the old room she used to share with her mother in the estate. When she reemerged from the first mirror, the broken glass cut her as if she'd broken through it herself.

Over time, Arabelle discovered that she could do much more with mirrors. She never really understood why she was able to do it until she did some digging in James's office. Slowly, Arabelle became aware of the world of magic, the sealed apparitions within the house, and his troubled past with the Harrisburg family.

His children slowly returned because of his death, but Arabelle remained an outside observer. The Vanburens life was never her own, so why bother with it now but to continue her mother’s legacy? Even if she knew the secrets of James Vanburen.

_{Abstraction
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}}
"Mirrors are everywhere."

TYPE ⫻ Awakened

ABSTRACTION ⫻ The Looking Glass: Arabelle uses mirrors to move over long distances, to see into another space, and to listen into conversations.

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻

Mirror Portal: Arabelle is able to create a pocket dimension within a mirror. By stepping into this dimension, Arabelle can open the portal to any mirror in a place she has been before. She must come into contact with the mirror before she steps inside, and the mirror must be intact unless she will risk serious injury. She has not yet tried to bring anyone else through a mirror with her, and she most likely will not try it because she worries for their safety.

Mirror Spying: Arabelle can use a mirror's pocket dimension to hear or see into different spaces. She doesn't have to be inside of the mirror in order to do this. Instead, she just needs to be in contact with the surface. As before, Arabelle must have seen or been in the place that she’s spying into.

AURA SENSING ⫻ Arabelle is able to sense the aura of anyone standing in front of a mirror before she chooses which mirror to emerge from or spy on. This makes it easier for her to hide her abstraction and to go from one place to another without suspicion.

LIMITS ⫻ Arabelle can only scry on one location at a time, and her ability only works on locations that she has been to. The act of teleportation is more straining the further away she teleports - theoretically, she can teleport any distance long as she has been there, but teleporting far distances will tire her out. Teleporting from one end of Araminta to the other will feel like she just ran a mile at top speed, but say teleporting from one end of the Vanburen manor to the other will be easy.

WEAKNESSES ⫻ If Arabelle teleports through a broken mirror then she'll receive a cut from it. If the mirror is broken while she is inside of it (before she teleports) then Arabelle will be forced out of it and injured in the process.

Recollections: Magnanimous

Bing bong

Arabella M. Matthews

"I ask myself every day why I keep coming back."

_______________________________________________ Arabelle Marie Matthews She/Her | 23 | English-American | 5’7” | 135 lbs _______________________________________________ Resilient _______________________________________________ Skills & Talents "I’m just a teacher who grew up taking care of others." ___________________________________ [+] [Teacher] ⫻ Arabelle is patient, attentive, observant, and inquisitive. These are the traits that she chooses to teach her students to be. She applies these traits to her everyday life. [Stealth] ⫻ Thanks to her abstraction, Arabelle can easily appear and disappear from any situation. Locked doors aren’t a thing to her, unless there is no mirror behind it.

Appearance ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "My mom tells me I look like her father and my own father combined. As if I knew what either of them looked like." Arabelle is slightly above average in height. She has a curvy build shaped like an hourglass, and is of a healthy weight instead of a flat stomach or thigh gap. Her hair is an auburn color with loose waves that fall just barely down to the middle of her back. She often clips her hair up so that it is out of her way for work, but lets it down while she is helping around the estate. Her face is in the shape of an apple, with light freckles across her cheekbones and nose thanks to her European descent. Her eyes are brown. Arabelle dresses well under the salary of a teacher. She is often in straight ankle jeans, slacks, or knee length skirts. She often tucks satin tanks, sweaters, blouses, or shirts into her pants. She rarely wears heels because she is on her feet all day. Instead she prefers mules, slip on sneakers, chelsea boots, or flats. Arabelle wears long sleeves to cover the scars from her awakening. There are three scars total. Two slashes on her left forearm and one slash on her upper right arm. They are just thin white lines from her past now.

_{Psychology
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}}
"No one but my students know me well."

MAIN GOAL ⫻ Arabelle just wants to find a piece of life for herself. She’s thought about visiting her family back in England. Maybe she’ll move there to live a different life, but she couldn’t stand to lose her teaching position. To name a specific goal, she wishes to cut her ties to the Vanburen’s eventually.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ The past defines you, but it does not define your future.

SEXUALITY ⫻ Bisexual. Arabelle has only been with men, but she does feel attracted towards women as well.

FEARS ⫻ Arabelle doesn’t have much to lose, but she fears losing her purpose for this world. She also fears that her awakened magic will affect her life in the real world. She even fears that one day she’ll wake up, and it will all have been a dream.

REPUTATION ⫻ Arabelle was always with her mother within the Vanburen estate, so she was known as Marie’s daughter by most of the staff and Vanburen family until she could speak for herself. Among the staff, she was a vibrant and extremely helpful colleague. To the Vanburen children, she was quiet and distant. She may have played with the youngest Vanburens, but today she isn’t sure if any of the children even remember her.

THOUGHTS ABOUT JAMES VANBUREN ⫻ James was a distant father figure to Arabelle. She’d see him around the estate and he was kind to her, but he was a busy man. She only grew close to him after her mother’s passing and her awakening. His death brought a different kind of pain. She didn’t have another emotional breakdown, but she grieved for the loss of her last connection to her mother’s past.

FLAWS ⫻ While the Vanburen children grew up with everything they could ever want, Arabelle did not. Her jealousy and subconscious bitterness towards them have emerged now that the Vanburen’s are returning to the estate. She even spites them for taking too much of her mother’s time, although now that she is older she understands that her mother may have been the only constant in their life other than James.

_{Backstory
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}}
"It was just my mother and I, unless you count the Vanburens as family too."

Arabelle’s mother moved from England to the US to find a better life. How she ended up in Pennsylvania, Arabelle has no idea, but she knows that at 17 it was hard for her mother to find work. She travelled the east coast working part time as kitchen staff for small diners and restaurants until a staff position at the Vanburen estate was advertised in the newspaper. Her mother, recognizing that the pay would be substantially better, immediately convinced the estate’s manager that she’d been a servant to countless Dukes and Duchesses in England. She was hired on that day.

Her mother remained a member of the staff for years. She cooked, cleaned, nannied the kids, served dinner, and tended to the gardens wherever she was needed. She didn’t mean to stay forever. She was putting money away on the side to go to school. She had just been about to sign up for her first year when she found out she was with child.

Arabelle was born, and her mother put her college savings away not for herself, but for her little girl. She continued to work at the Vanburen estate. Arabelle grew up helping her mother with the morning preparations, then she’d go to a nearby public school, and then she’d come home to help her mother with the evening dinner. It wasn’t a perfect life, but it was their own.

Arabelle’s mother never told her who her father was. The only father figure in her life was James Vanburen himself, but he had many children to care for and she often felt jealous of them. Her mother helped raise them after James would find new lovers. Arabelle would be busy helping her mother with work, or she would stand to the side, as she watched her mother care for his kids. She was never sure if any of them returned the same care for her mother or herself, but at some point she stopped caring. She was an outsider within the Vanburen walls. Once she was old enough, she’d leave them for a better life.

As she grew older, Arabelle withdrew herself more and more from the Vanburen’s. Once she was eighteen, her mother surprised her with college funds. She was sad to leave her mother behind, but her mother decided that Araminta was her home. Most of James’s children had left by then. She felt like she was the only thing that remained of James’s past still within the walls. Arabelle left for college that same year.

Arabelle will always remember the night she heard that her mother passed. It was James Vanburen himself that showed up at her door. He was quite distraught, himself. He brought the news that would shatter her world. He told her that she would always be welcomed back to the estate, but Arabelle told him to leave. In her grief and shock, Arabelle smashed the nearest mirror to her and found herself sobbing over her broken reflection. She found herself wishing to be by her mother’s side more than anything. She’d never gotten to say goodbye.

Arabelle slowly moved on. She finished school and began to teach, but she still carried the weight of her past with her. She began to visit the Vanburen estate, and had quietly awkward dinners with James. She wanted to hear stories about her mother, from before she was born and after she left the estate.

She continued to visit him until his death. After his passing, Arabelle couldn't stand to see the estate wither away. Her mother would be turning in her grave. So after school and on the weekends Arabelle would return to the Vanburens to help with the cooking and cleaning. A month after James Vanburen passed she came across a letter from her mother. It had fallen behind a dresser at some time and was forgotten. Arabelle was overcome with the same anguish she felt the day her mother died. She felt an energy from herself erupt and smash a nearby window. As she cleaned up the pieces, she suddenly found herself within the mirror. On the other side of it was the old room she used to share with her mother in the estate. When she reemerged from the first mirror, the broken glass cut her as if she'd broken through it herself.

Over time, Arabelle discovered that she could do much more with mirrors. She never really understood why she was able to do it until she did some digging in James's office. Slowly, Arabelle became aware of the world of magic, the sealed apparitions within the house, and his troubled past with the Harrisburg family.

His children slowly returned because of his death, but Arabelle remained an outside observer. The Vanburens life was never her own, so why bother with it now but to continue her mother’s legacy? Even if she knew the secrets of James Vanburen.

_{Abstraction
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}}
"Mirrors are everywhere."

TYPE ⫻ Awakened

ABSTRACTION ⫻ The Looking Glass: Arabelle uses mirrors to move over long distances, to see into another space, and to listen into conversations.

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻

Mirror Portal: Arabelle is able to create a pocket dimension within a mirror. By stepping into this dimension, Arabelle can open the portal to any mirror in a place she has been before. She must come into contact with the mirror before she steps inside, and the mirror must be intact unless she will risk serious injury. She has not yet tried to bring anyone else through a mirror with her, and she most likely will not try it because she worries for their safety.

Mirror Spying: Arabelle can use a mirror's pocket dimension to hear or see into different spaces. She doesn't have to be inside of the mirror in order to do this. Instead, she just needs to be in contact with the surface. As before, Arabelle must have seen or been in the place that she’s spying into.

AURA SENSING ⫻ Arabelle is able to sense the aura of anyone standing in front of a mirror before she chooses which mirror to emerge from or spy on. This makes it easier for her to hide her abstraction and to go from one place to another without suspicion.

LIMITS ⫻ Arabelle can only scry on one location at a time, and her ability only works on locations that she has been to. The act of teleportation is more straining the further away she teleports - theoretically, she can teleport any distance long as she has been there, but teleporting far distances will tire her out. Teleporting from one end of Araminta to the other will feel like she just ran a mile at top speed, but say teleporting from one end of the Vanburen manor to the other will be easy.

WEAKNESSES ⫻ If Arabelle teleports through a broken mirror then she'll receive a cut from it. If the mirror is broken while she is inside of it (before she teleports) then Arabelle will be forced out of it and injured in the process.

CHILDREN OF LEE - THE FIRST GENERATION OF SUPERHEROES

Elle Miller

---

Elle’s eyes crinkled at the edges as she made her challenge, even though she’d missed the first throw. Her cup was already halfway empty and she could feel the familiar buzz that jungle juice gave her growing. She noticed Titus leaving the couch from the corner of her eye but paid no mind to it. Yet when she heard his bellow from behind her the crinkles around her eyes faded. She kept her eyes on Henry, who was most likely the only one who could tell that Titus’s reaction had irked her. To anyone else watching, she most likely looked focused on the game or a little bored.

Henry picked up the ball, but before he made his first toss he gave her a motion to hold up. Elle merely raised an eyebrow, but let him wander off towards the kitchen. While she waited, she took another sip of her drink. Her mind was still on Titus, wondering how many times he’d been rejected to react so blatantly when she hadn’t been rude at all. Hell, she hadn’t even rejected him yet. She leaned her weight onto one hip and crossed her arms in front of her as she waited for Henry’s return. With only one sweep of the room to see where the giant had stormed off to, which she played off as looking for Henry’s return, she spotted Titus by the windows. A part of her wondered if she should have sat and talked with him a bit, but then she thought, “Fuck that.” Elle rarely showed interest in anyone, so what was he getting butthurt about? This totally wasn’t an issue with how she’d acted around him. She wouldn’t let him intimidate her because he felt rejected.

It was then that she noticed the church boy and Letitia Greene standing right by her. At his comment, Elle merely gave him an “Uhh, thanks,” before turning her attention back to the table.

Oookayy.

Henry soon emerged from the kitchen with a cooler tucked under his arm. The corner of Elle’s lip tugged as she realized that she might actually win her first game of beer pong. He set it down on his side of the table, which confirmed that he wasn’t playing a joke by putting it on her side. Elle’s humor only grew as she watched him beat his chest like a warrior and proceed to effortlessly shotgun a beer. She raised an eyebrow, already thinking of a witty comment to make because he looked like he was preparing to drink the entire cooler. He pulled out two more, tossing the other to Christian beside her.

”Gotta keep it fair!” Elle rolled her eyes. It didn’t help that she was a lightweight. He covered his eyes and Elle furrowed her brows as if to dare him to make the shot blind. Then he peeked out between his fingers, which did make Elle grin, before he tossed the pong. It bounced on the table before the cups, and Elle realized with a widening grin that it was headed right towards the center cup. The “bitch cup” is what she’d heard countless times at this party. She let it fall right in. Henry looked excited that he’d made it. Did he know what bitch cup meant?

“Looks like you don’t have to shotgun another, but don’t forget that the bitch cup doesn’t count on the first throw.” Elle smirked as she reached for the pong and pulled it out, leaving the cup in its place. “Nice toss, though.” She added just because she felt like he needed the encouragement.

Elle knew no tricks for the game but she figured that she should at least lose in style. She certainly wasn’t going to look clueless in front of all of the people watching now. Better to go out looking confident. So Elle raised her arm up, poised to make the next throw, and lifted her cup to her lips. She began to chug it, and halfway through her second gulp she turned her eyes to the side to see where she was throwing and tossed the ball. It looked like it was going to make it, but Elle didn’t want to watch in case it missed. Instead she turned her eyes back to her drink and finished it. She heard the ball bouncing on the wooden floors as she lowered her cup and gave Henry a shrug. “Toss me one of those too while you’re at it.” She referred to the beers as she set her empty cup down to the side of the table. Her smile was the only indication that she didn’t care whether she’d made it or not.