nora polkinghorne (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} _fixate) wrote,@ 2016-04-10 16:27:00 |
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In Character Information
Nora Faith Polkinghorne was born May 6, 1940 in Indianapolis, Indiana. The first of three girls, all born in rapid succession - her sister Daisy followed in 1941 (the same year they adopted Cecily Bennett, their cousin, after her mother died in childbirth), and Ivy came in 1942.
Being born during World War II meant life was tougher for the Polkinghorne children than it should have been. Financially comfortable and with two loving parents should have meant an easy going childhood, the most drama being childhood fights between sisters. However, with the reinstatement and many changes to the Conscription process (better known as The Draft), Hugh Polkinghorne was forced to register and eventually, just shortly after Ivy’s conception, enlist in the Military.
This left Amelia alone to care for four girls. This is, perhaps, why Nora had such a mother-complex with her younger sisters. She always felt a bit responsible for them and did what she could to help her mother. At first it was a natural protection but quickly became something deeper, as they grew older and her mother's constant reminder to Nora to help care for her sisters, despite the minor age differences.
Hugh Polkinghorne should have come home in 1945 - 46 at the latest, but he never did. The war had a significant impact on his psyche and he was unable to return to normal life. Even though he did come back at a young age, he was not well, and shortly after coming home he took his own life. Amelia never really got over it.
Still, she was their only parent now and their only source of income. She had worked in the factories while Hugh was in the Army, often supplementing the lack of sufficient income with selling herbs and reading tea leaves out of their home. When the war ended, she took up a variety of different jobs as a secretary, a house keeper, anything to help put food on the table, still selling herbs and doing tea leaf readings on the side. Amelia did not hide this from her children, and as they came of age she taught them about their heritage and the traditions of being a Waldheim Witch.
When their abilities came in earnest, the real teaching began. They all learned together, causing the girls to bond further. Their closeness in age made them equals more than anything else, despite Nora’s hovering.
It wasn’t until she was fifteen that things changed. Cecily had found her “true love”. Joshua Cutler was from a well known family of Hunters, who knew of their Waldheim ancestors and of what they were. The pairing was dangerous, and both families vehemently opposed their coupling. Ultimatums were given, and Cecily chose wrong. A lovestruck teenager, incapable of thinking long term, she chose Joshua. She chose love over her family. They didn’t stick around for a wedding invitation, the family picked up and left Indiana, completely cutting off Cecily in the process.
They went west, as far west as possible and landed themselves in a small, quiet town away from normal civilization. Grants Pass, Oregon was a small town with a small town kind of mentality. They had to be more careful about their Witchcraft - the girls were forbidden to speak of it at all except from at home, amongst themselves, and Amelia stopped practicing publicly. She no longer gave tea readings or sold herbs. They did not, at all, want to draw any sort of attention to themselves. They never spoke to Cecily ever again, either.
It took a toll on the three remaining sisters. Although she was not a full blooded sister, just a cousin, they had all grown up with Cecily and claimed her as one of them. There was no difference to Nora because her own parents had not birthed Cecily. She knew her as well as she knew Daisy and Ivy. The betrayal of family hurt her deeply - she resented Cecily for it, but she also resented her family from forcing that choice on all of them, from cutting her off and leaving. There was to be no contact with her at all, and it devastated Nora. She felt like she failed in some way - she had not taken care of her sisters in the way she should have.
So she kept a more careful eye on Ivy and Daisy. She became overbearing - making sure there was nothing that would separate them, too. The younger girls came to resent Cecily just as much as Nora did - but not for the same reasons. They resented this change in Nora, brought on by what happened with Cecily. The two didn’t like to be watched so closely, smothered by the eldest sister.
Things became strained, and Nora knew it was mostly her fault. Still, she too was angry. She felt her mother had stifled their abilities, became frustrated with her growing sense of responsibility for her sisters. Nora kept these things to herself, but as they grew older and her sisters started dating and forging their own ways, Nora felt a little lost. Not really needed anymore, her family stable and settled, she decided to travel a bit.
This would be the biggest mistake of her life.
While traveling, nearing thirty and still single, Nora fell easily to the charms of a dangerous man named Micah. He was beautiful, young, there was something about him… He was so compelling and he had set his sights on her. She was smitten almost instantly, but it wasn’t love and affection he was looking for. At least, not while she was like she was.
No, just a few weeks after meeting and decided she was in fact what he wanted, he bit her. Stripped of her magical abilities and suddenly with an intense, insatiable thirst for blood, Nora was terrified. Her Sire gave her little in the way of reasons why he did it, but did what was necessary. He helped her feed, taught her the ropes. It was nearly two months before Nora had the sanity and strength to pen letters to her sisters and mother, explaining what had happened, asking for help.
She wasn’t sure she was strong enough not to attack her sisters, absolutely against doing anything that would harm her family in any way. She stuck with her Micah, her sisters sending her a charmed ring that allowed her to go in the sun, giving one to her Sire as well. She stayed with Micah for several years before he was murdered by hunters. Had she not been so angry with him for turning her, the breaking of that bond may have killed her, too.
Fortunately, she did have family. Filled with grief and rage - she went to to her family and begged them for help. Her mother, disappointed that Nora was no longer a witch and slightly disgusted with her being a vampire, kept her distance. Her sisters obliged, of course, and with time and the gentle care of her younger sisters, Nora was able to come back from her losses - the loss of her heritage, her magic, her mother, and her Sire.
By the time she was able to be on her own again, her mother was sick, dying. Ivy was married with children. She watched, mostly from afar, as her sisters grew older, as her own mother passed. As Ivy had children and then grandchildren. As Daisy went off to forge her own path, making the decisions that were right for her. She watched as they aged and she stayed the same. She knew they would eventually pass, and she would still be here.
Part of it stemmed from knowing she’d have so few family members left - after being surrounded by so many of them for most of her life, the idea of losing them was upsetting. She didn’t want to spend the rest of her existence knowing she had more family out there she had never met because of stupid circumstances… So she went to her niece and nephew, and asked for their help in locating Cecily and seeing if she’d had any children. Though her nephew was a witch, her niece did not have the innate ability - however, she had learned many of the same things her brother had and though not quite as accurate, not quite as innate, she too was help in locating Cecily.
Depression and regret filled her instantly when the location of Cecily took her to a graveyard. However, she’d also gleaned the information that Cecily had a daughter, and that daughter had two children after that. Some careful detective work let her know that Georgiana had not inherited any abilities, and it was still unsure if her children had. With that in mind, she decided to track down Harper and Sawyer to see for herself.
Her great niece, Vivian Brewer - Non witch, but aware of the supernatural. Open to having her be a vampire/werewolf/something you can be turned into as well.
Vampire friends
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