BASICS Character Name(s): Maggie Lynn Morgan Burghard Nicknames/Aliases: Mags and Magpie, both used frequently by her uncle Charlie Gender: Female Character "Age": 26 (it's complicated) DOB: April 7th, 2001 (a virus caused her to age rapidly to appear as though she was 16, but then she was frozen that way by being turned into a vampire) Birth Location: Los Angeles, California Current Residence: TJS Heritage: German and English ancestors Species: shape shifter, and her go to form is that of a Californiacougar, but she can transform into other creatures as well, and she became a vampire in May 2009 Job(s) Held: none Current Employment: Biology major (which is as close as she can get to pre-med) at TJS, and she works in the infirmary
PHYSICAL Height: 5'4" Build: petite but strong Complexion: on the fair side, but she can get a little color when she's in the sun enough and she'll stay that way now that she can't go out in the sun Hair Color: it used to be much lighter as a child, but has turned a darker shade of blond with age Eye Color: grey/green blue Distinguishing marks: she wants a tattoo but hasn't gotten one yet PB: Chloe Moretz
POWER Physical Weaknesses:Maggie has all the weaknesses of a regular human. Normal vampire weaknesses Physical Strengths: She is often stronger and faster when in a shifted state, because the animal is stronger and faster. It makes her a major threat to other vampires. Magical Abilities: Maggie can transform her body into that of many different animals, and she has a preference for big cats. Any Training: Charlie trained Maggie in self-defense and weaponry. She's also a very good equestrian.
PERSONALITY Hobbies: She enjoys singing and playing guitar and piano. She loves to ride her horse. Habits/Quirks: She hums a lot without realizing she's doing it. Fears: Maggie will always be traumatized by her experience with Charlie's sire, Val, who kidnapped the child and hurt her. Maggie also witnessed Charlie killing Val, and that's stuck with her, though she does her best to pretend it never happened. She doesn't like to talk about it. Likes: animals, swimming, hanging out with her friends, silly knock knock jokes Dislikes: adults talking down to her especially now that she's older but still looks like a kid Personal Strengths: She's very confident and gung-ho about just about everything. Maggie is a determined girl who doesn't take no for an answer. Personal Weaknesses: Maggie inherited her uncle's habit of "act first, think later." She jumps in without looking first. Maggie is almost fearless (save for some traumatizing things from her past), and it gets her into trouble sometimes. Extra: Maggie has a pet cat that her uncle Charlie gave her. The kitty is named Edelweiss. Charlie gave Maggie a horse as well, a roan grey gelding named Gus, but Maggie renamed him Iron Man. Both animals are in their 'senior' years and get a lot of extra loving from Maggie as a result.
FAMILY Grandpa:William - Human (and suffering from Parkinson's) Grandma:Morgan - Human, died in 1987 (age 35) after a three year battle with breast cancer. Dad:Lewis - Human - two years younger than Charlie. Mom:Alicia - Human, but has a family history of shape shifters. She, however, has no ability to transform. Uncle: Charlie charlieburghard Aunt: Ava ava_adore (She married Charlie on 1/28/08, and he filed for divorce on 1/16/09, but Maggie still calls Ava her aunt, and Ava is also her sire.)
HISTORY Maggie Burghard could have very easily been her uncle's child. Thankfully, her mother saw that he was a roamer, not ready to settle down, and ignored his advances when she met the Burghard brothers one night at a bar in 1999. The men were in a band and had just finished performing. Charlie was approached by a sexy blond who immediately got his attention, but her reason for approaching him wasn't what he'd hoped. She wanted to know the name of the lead singer, not flirt with the backup and bass player. Charlie did his best to convince her otherwise, but it seemed clear that Alicia only had eyes for the younger Burghard: Lewis. Charlie's pride was only injured for a few seconds, and then he saw the dopey look on his brother's face. It was love at first sight for the sap. Within just a few months, Alicia and Lewis were married.
They settled down like any young couple and gave up the wild ways of their youth, or at least tried to. The pair would often get dragged out by Charlie, who insisted that since they didn't yet have children, they needed to party. But when the announcement came that Alicia was pregnant, Charlie was the first to insist that she stay away from that scene. He and Lewis both were actually quite protective of the new generation of Burghard. It was on April 7th, 2001 that she entered the world. Maggie was expected to be the first of several children, but there were complications during delivery, and the doctor cautioned Alicia about having more. Thankfully, Maggie was perfect in her parents' eyes, and they were more than satisfied to stop after her.
She was the apple of her uncle's eyes too. Making him her godfather was an easy choice, and Charlie felt honored. He also felt the weight of the responsibility. It was for that reason that he didn't reenlist after September 11th, 2001, when the World Trade Center and Pentagon were attacked. Instead, he devoted his life to helping raise Maggie.
The two were close from the very start. Actually, Maggie was close to her entire family. They were an active, happy, and silly bunch. Maggie couldn't see a thing wrong with her upbringing. But one November day in 2006, her dad came home to explain that Uncle Charlie had to leave for a little while because something had happened. Lewis was careful in his explanation, since until now, the whole family thought vampires were pure fantasy, but at the same time, Lewis wanted to be honest with his only child who loved her uncle very much and was used to seeing him nearly ever day. It was hard on Maggie when Charlie left, even though he wrote her regularly, and she drew him lots of pictures.
It took time, but the Burghards were eventually reunited (plus one, because he brought a friend home), and it was then that something magical happened to Maggie. While playing tag in the house one day, Maggie's body transformed into that of a young California cougar. Clothes ripped from her body in the process, and she was sprinting on all fours away from her uncle. It didn't feel like anything had changed at first. It actually felt really natural. But when Charlie stopped chasing her, and Alicia dropped a large, wooden salad bowl, Maggie stopped. Was she suddenly shorter? Everything seemed taller. And her eyes didn't focus on things the same way. She smelled things too, things she'd never noticed before. And her hearing was AMAZING! As Alicia stared at her daughter, hands over her mouth in shock, Maggie looked down to see what was going on. She saw big, fluffy paws. They moved when her hands moved. And what was flying around behind her. Maggie turned back to see a tail swishing about. Finally, she approached a long mirror in the entryway of the house and saw a large predator staring back at her. Maggie screamed from surprise, but it came out as a roar instead. That just made her scream again, and once again it was a roar that everyone heard.
Charlie's stint at a supernatural school turned out to be a blessing. He knew what Maggie was, but he had no idea why. After some digging into the family tree on both sides, they discovered that there were some strange things on Alicia's side. Pieces came together that there were other shapeshifters in her family, but no one had ever bothered to tell Alicia, because it turned out she was only a carrier of the DNA and had never shifted herself.
Maggie was confused and unsure of things at first, but it felt fun and natural to shift, and she started doing so more often. Being adventurous, she was excited to try her hand at this shifting thing. It was also totally awesome to be able to outrun everyone in her family, especially Charlie, and even kick his butt! She was a young cougar, but still quite a large kitty with big claws and teeth!
It seemed obvious that Maggie needed to learn about her ability from experts, so it was decided that she'd attend a supernatural school like Charlie had. This time, Charlie worked at the school as the head of security and acted as Maggie's guardian during the week. She spent weekends with her parents, who lived just a few miles away from the school. Maggie felt like she had the best of both worlds. For a child who always felt more comfortable in the company of adults, she was surrounded by them, and they were all very nice to her. She also fell in love with her new aunt. The circumstances were strange, because Charlie and Ava had been hit by a spell that made them lose their memories, but it allowed them to find each other. Maggie got to wear a pretty dress and throw flowers, and then she had a new family member she adored! It was all so wonderful.. until it wasn't.
Something terrible happened one evening when she was at home with her parents. A tall, blond woman with an icy stare and heart showed up suddenly in her bedroom. She appeared out of thin air alongside a dark haired man. Maggie had been warned about her uncle's sire, but she'd never actually seen the woman. Still, Maggie recognized her almost immediately. It was definitely Val. The psychotic vampire kidnapped Maggie with the help of her teleporting friend, using the child as bait. Val didn't want Maggie, she wanted Charlie, and he came the moment he learned that Maggie was in danger. A bloody battle broke out between Charlie and his sire, and it ended with the woman literally losing her head. Maggie was traumatized not only by the rough treatment she received from Val, but also by what she witnessed: her uncle beheading a woman. Maggie knew her uncle was strong, and he'd always been protective, but she'd never seen that look in his eyes before. She slipped into a state of shock, unresponsive to the world around her. It seemed to last forever, for Maggie and those worried about her. She stayed with her parents, not speaking. Charlie stayed at school, afraid to be around his beloved niece. But something strange happened. Maggie started humming the songs that her uncle loved. With the help of her aunt Ava, who visited and played some of Charlie's music, Maggie started to come out of her shell. Eventually, the family convinced Charlie to visit, and with some work, Maggie began to heal from the trauma she'd experienced.
She took her time in returning to school though. Baby steps. But once she returned and got back into a routine, she felt better. She spent loads of time riding her horse, Iron Man (a gift from Charlie), playing with her cat, Edelweiss, and being goofy with her aunt and uncle. She also worked hard with the various tutors at school who taught her the basics all children learned in school in addition to helping her develop her supernatural ability.
It was all going great, again. But once again, things came crashing down. Her family was moving away. Maggie's parents decided she was spending too much time in the company of adults, and they thought she needed to be learning among her young peers. Of course the child objected to this, because she always thought of herself as being very grown up. But too many bad things had happened at TJS, and it really wasn't a suitable place for a young child to grow up.
But the entire family wasn't moving. They were leaving someone behind: Maggie's aunt Ava. Maggie had lost Davia months before, another woman she'd grown close to, but this was so much worse! Why didn't Ava want to come with them? Why did they have to leave at all? Why were Charlie and Ava fighting so much? It was all very confusing to a young mind. She didn't understand why they couldn't all stay together. They were a family, that's what families did! And it seemed that her uncle's marriage was falling apart. Maggie knew about divorce from friends she'd had back in California. She knew that moms and dads fought and then decided they didn't love each other anymore. Did Ava and Charlie not love each other? Did they still love her? Everyone reassured Maggie that there was no love lost, that it was just a bad situation that no one could fix.
And just like that, they moved, leaving Ava behind. Charlie was miserable without her, though he kept trying to pretend he wasn't. Maggie was young, not stupid. She could tell when adults were lying to her to protect her. Maggie wasn't buying it. She hated her new school, and she hated that she couldn't see and talk to her aunt and all her grown up friends back at TJS. Maggie's grades began to slip, and she even got in a few fights at school. She'd reached the age where girls start to bully each other. Being pretty and a newcomer did not work in Maggie's favor. She was teased constantly.
All teasing, and really anything else related to school, stopped one day when nearly everyone, students and staff, got terribly sick. Maggie came home from classes with a fever. She was bright red, had a stomach ache, and felt faint. The next day, Charlie felt ill as well, though his symptoms were ten times worse. Vampires weren't supposed to get sick. What was even more unusual was that Maggie's parents and grandfather were fine. They felt totally normal. And then something even more unusual began to happen. As Charlie got sicker.. Maggie seemed older. It wasn't that she was simply more mature, she was physically aging at a rapid pace. The change was painful. Her bones and muscles were stretching at an unnatural rate. The Burghards feared they might lose Maggie and Charlie both to whatever this sickness was that only impacted supernaturals.
Days passed, and the family grew more worried. Charlie really did seem to be on death's doorstep, and Maggie was in a great amount of pain from the accelerated aging process. But being in the supernatural community came with benefits. Talented healers and witches were able to create a cure. It tasted terrible, but it worked. Maggie's rapid growth slowed to a normal pace, and Charlie began to get well. It turned out they'd been infected with an engineered virus created by fringe groups hellbent on eliminating supernaturals from existence.
Feeling much better, and more rebellious now that she was suddenly 15, Maggie was more determined than ever to say goodbye to the new school she hated. Charlie had heard of the virus striking TJS, and he was on his way there to help by delivering the cure and checking on his friends. Maggie wanted to follow, but the family insisted she stay put. But why should she? She was 'all grown up' now, and she didn't have to listen to them! She went online and ordered a plane ticket with her dad's credit card. The next day, Maggie was on a flight to Boston.
Maggie struggled a bit with school having aged suddenly. It got even harder after she turned 16 and just a month later turned into a vampire. She will forever look like a teenager and has some lingering immature qualities as a result. It took time for her to get her high school diploma, but she managed to accomplish it and is now a Biology major at TJS (since they don't offer pre-med, specifically), and is getting a minor in music. She wants to be a pediatrician because she loves children, but she knows it won't be easy given her needs as a vampire. She's not sure where she will go to medical school or how she will make it work given she can't be outside during the day, but she's a determined little thing.
SOCIAL Friends: - Devon - Fox - Starbuck - Kim - Kamea - Bastian - Ava - McKenna - Cassie - Jay Best Friends: - Kamea - Devon Significant Other: - None
CLASS SCHEDULE
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PBs - William - Adam Arkin - Morgan - Kristin Davis - Charlie - Ryan Reyonlds - Lewis - Nicholas Brendon - Alicia - Amy Smart