Emily, 14
A brawny tomboy from hell
❱❱❱❱ FULL NAME
Emily Nutter
❱❱❱❱ NICKNAME(S)
Nut
❱❱❱❱ DATE OF BIRTH
January 18, 1971
❱❱❱❱ GENDER
Female
❱❱❱❱ APPEARANCE
The first thing people tend to notice about Emily is that she is freakishly big for a girl her age. Her height is whopping five foot nine and she has the wide, strong arms of a lumberjack. Her long, originally blonde hair - which she dyed brown - would look quite pretty is she washed them more frequently than every other week.
She wears black shirts with the logos of her favorite metal bands such as Iron Maiden, Metallica and Slayer, baggy grey army pants, and, if the weather gets rough, a grey bomber jacket. She is usually seen keeping her head down, with Radar O’Reilly headphones on her ears and her hands buried deep into the pockets of her pants. She walks in bold steps, with the soles of her big black boots thumping as quickly and heavily as the drums in her hellish songs.
❱❱❱❱ PERSONALITY
There is one moment that Emily thinks has defined her life. That was the afternoon when her older brother Eddie brought home the tape with Metallica's Kill Em' All album. By the time the album finished, she was ready to throw all her Madonna and Cyndi Lauper albums and teen magazines into the ditch. Finally she found music that spoke to her: gritty, brash and hard as cement.
Her newfound passion for metal music did indeed make her behave as if possessed by a demon. She started to swear profusely, steal cigarettes from her dad and watch a lot of horror movies. However, it would be unfair to say that her rebellious attitude would not find some other outlet if she did not get into metal. Emily always felt a bit like an outcast and she just needed something that would allow her to express that.
The reasons for her inability to get along with most other girls are rooted in her family upbringing. Emily’s mother died when she was four years old, while her father, from whom Emily inherited her intimidating frame, had to work hard as a lumberjack to support Emily and her three older brothers. As a result, Emily was practically raised by her brothers who told her just what they knew – that if someone insults you, the correct reaction is to smack that person on the head. It is no wonder that Emily spent much of the grade school in detention.
It also makes it easy to understand how she became a metalhead. For much of her childhood, she was half-heartedly trying to embrace traditionally ‘girly’ things and encountering heavy metal showed her another way.
Her personality does however make her a rather controversial figure in her school. She is trying to act as if no insult can undermine her sense of self-worth. She appears confident and quite outgoing, frequently telling other girls about her encounters with boys, most (or all) of which never happened.
However, the truth is that she is repressing the anger caused by the fact that she does not really feel accepted for who she is and despite her tomboyishness, she wants to feel attractive, although she is afraid that if she takes too much care with her appearance, she would become a ‘square’.
Also, although she looks mature, we have to remember that she is still a fourteen year old. She will pretend to be braver than she is and do reckless things, only to end up in situations where she is scared out of her wits.
❱❱❱❱ FAMILY
Richard Nutter, 47 – Richard is a lumberjack and a true working man. He was devastated by the death of his wife, which however instead of bringing him closer to his children made him throw himself into his work furiously – both to provide for his children and alleviate his pain.
He is, to a certain degree disappointed in his two older sons, and is deathly afraid of what will Emily do, suspecting that she got into occultism and drugs. However, he has neither time nor energy to acts on those suspicions.
Billy Nutter, 25 - Emily’s oldest brother and initial father figure. They were very close until he left for college. Emily was eleven years old at the time, and she never felt this kind of abandonment until then. Even worse, Billy never liked to come back to Red Herrings – especially after he dropped out from college. He never told his dad about this and the reason why he rarely came back to Red Herrings is that he was afraid he would see through his lies. Richard of course realized this almost immediately, but never said anything.
When Billy first left Red Herrings, he was feeling resentment about the fact that he was always the one to take care of everything in the house. He became a drifter to “find himself” – which Emily sincerely hopes he does at some point.
Eddie Nutter. 20 - The ‘shithead’ brother. He was always the Nutter boy who got into all the trouble and was a bit of a bully, making Emily do all of his chores for him – unless Billy intervened. He did however introduce Emily to metal, and for that she will be forever grateful to him, although Billy’s own music tastes became more Patrick Bateman-like since then.
It would seem that Eddie will end up in jail at 20, but at 18 he got pregnant with Jenny O’Malley, the girl next door. College was not an option for him anymore (not that he ever really considered it), but Jenny became a calming influence on him. After their marriage, Eddie turned from a wild child to an obedient, if rather prickly and passive-aggressive husband. He works as a car mechanic and pays Emily to babysit his daughter.
Jessie Nutter. 17 - The youngest of the older brothers. He is meek and subservient, so Emily often had to smack him on the back of his head to make him help her with standing up to Eddie. He is also easily the most studious of the Nutter children, and is not shy about his good grades. For that reason Emily frequently gets extremely annoyed with him, as she was never able to apply herself to the same extent – and because Jessie is the brother she is the closest with age-wise, he is the one with whom she is competing, although she would never admit that. Still, she hopes Jesse will be the one Nutter boy who will go to college and end up rich and successful.
❱❱❱❱ RELATIONS
❱❱❱❱ TALENTS
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Fighting – She has a mean right hook. If that fails, she can pull her opponents’ hair. Or pin them to the ground.
She is not really what you would call a ‘tactical’ fighter, as most times she wins with her sheer size and pure unadulterated rage. Still, there is no questioning her effectiveness.
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Trash-talking – Sometimes the fists are not even necessary to make her opponent embarrassed about himself or herself. Emily has a retort to every insult flung at her and is a walking encyclopedia of ‘yo mama’ jokes.
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Heavy-lifting – She always done work around the house along with her father and brothers and has quite an impressive physique. She is your girl if you want to move something heavy.
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General outdoors stuff – Since camping is the Nutter family’s preferred pastime, Emily became quite good at things like setting up a campfire or a tent.
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Babysitting – She might seem intimidating, but for some reason babies seem to love her. Or at least find her voice soothing to go to sleep after she sings them a lullaby.