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Maggie

You had to know someone was going to get this one:

Magnificent Ameenah D’Iver b. June 17, 1366. Maggie lives in Hyacinth’s boarding house in Room 202, with her mother, Brigadier General Glorious D’Iver, and occasionally her father, Sanaam Sadiq. She is a learned magic-user, still undergoing her mother’s tutelage, with an eye towards eventual military service. She occupies a dangerous middle ground between her parents’ personalities: intelligent, responsible and meticulous, but also fun-loving, morally flexible and creative. She is capable of presenting a polite, deferent, impeccably well-behaved front when it suits her purposes, but her true personality is a devious one. Her best friends, and the only kids her age who aren’t terrified of her, are Soup and Erik. Sun’s Days and bank holidays, her only time off from constant lessons, are prime time for getting into trouble with them in the neighborhood. She is a clever creature who will make tools and use them, and she has constructed a loving family out of the rest of the household, to supplement her distant (emotionally and physically) parents. Erik’s uncle in particular makes a good auxiliary nurturer, and she calls him ‘Uncle Mordecai’ just like Erik does, but he is a frequent target of her sense of humor as well.

Though subordinate to her mother’s experience and skill, in most situations she prefers to be calling the shots, and she is willing to fight for supremacy if necessary. She tends to escalate things, having enough skill to accomplish incredible feats but not enough experience to realize maybe she shouldn’t do that. If not found in her room or out behind the house, she is terrorizing the city at large — beware.

Like previous generations of females in her family, Maggie has learned how to change into a bird, in her case a magpie. This is something of a disappointment, as her mother and grandmother achieved sturdier and more warlike bird forms. Nevertheless, Maggie is adept at many forms of magic. If she is unfamiliar with something, she knows how to look it up and also how to improvise, which means there is very little beyond her grasp — she only needs practice to get good at something. Her mother has, until recently, neglected to teach her magical notation, thus she is capable of doing intricate calculations and building complex strings of functions with only closed eyes and a couple seconds to think.

Due to the physical demands of turning into a bird, Maggie’s weight tends to fluctuate between “somewhat pudgy” and “little girl, when was the last time you ate?” but she has yet to lose any body parts to the process.

Description

Maggie is perpetually a little bigger than Erik, much to his annoyance, and also a bit tall for her age. The amount of fat she is carrying around at any given moment may vary, which makes a lot of difference to her apparent build, but her muscles are well-developed and get a lot of use, giving her a ropy and tough constitution in all cases. Her dresses are all the same: dark blue, with a pleated bodice, puffed sleeves and a tie around the middle which helps with their fit. They are of knee length, which her mother considers appropriate for her age. In fair weather, she wears cuffed white socks of ankle height with lace edging and black leather shoes which are fastened with a bow. For snow, she has thick wool stockings and ankle-high boots. She wears one white petticoat with a lace edge, which also varies in composition depending on the temperature. White gloves fastened with a single pearl button are to be worn outside, but she’ll strip them off if they get inconvenient or sticky. The monotony of her outfits makes it easier for her to account for them when she changes into a bird, but she will occasionally be caught without small clothing items (socks, gloves, etc.) when she changes back. Maggie is biracial, with medium-brown skin and hair which favors her father’s ancestry. She is frequently mistaken for adopted or otherwise not belonging to her mother. She wears her dark hair in two twisted braids which are gathered at the sides of her head and tend to bounce and bobble but never touch her shoulders. Her eyes are dark brown. She is usually smiling.

While in bird form, Maggie is on the large size for a magpie, but not unreasonably so. There is nothing terribly remarkable about her, except her behavior. She knows several short phrases in Anglais and can approximate many more if necessary.

Being a child and somewhat in flux, Maggie was not included in the original spectrum of household temperaments, but she tends towards choleric. If there’s a problem, she has a solution. If there’s not a problem, well, somebody’s not pushing the boundaries hard enough! Among her friends, she is a natural leader, and even if she didn’t posit the direction she will frequently be found fording the way. Among adults, she will be polite, precocious and helpful, awaiting a moment when she can make a grand contribution or get away with something. ‘Magnificent’ is not just a name, but an expectation, from both her parents and herself. Surrounded by soaring demands and perfectionism, on those rare occasions when she can’t find a direction to go or a solution to give, she retreats into stiff formality and following orders — and occasional tears.

Maggie’s fondest wish is for everything to be fun. Unlike her father, she has no conflicting desire for things to be easy. Things have never been easy. When she has her choice, she makes things as fun as possible — to make up for the rest of the time when she has to sit still, listen and learn. She is willing to put up with the stuffy room and the grinding schedule of lessons because she believes it is an investment in her ability to do really awesome fun things later. Maggie is three prank snakes compacted tightly into a can of delayed gratification and if anything loosens the lid everything is going to spring out.

Maggie’s mother believes that life is a store and you may take whatever you want — but you must pay for it. Thus, Maggie has never really been told “you may not,” but instead “if you do, this is what will happen.” Even a stern “no” is not a command, but a warning of unpleasant consequences. Maggie does not have so much as sense of right and wrong as a knowledge of how much unpleasantness she is willing to abide. Her mother has tried to make certain things very unappealing, but the rewards of lying, stealing and vicious sarcasm outweigh the punishments. Apart from the flexible morality, this has also resulted in a child who is unusually self-assured, willing to challenge authority and deliver her own consequences for inappropriate behavior. A rudimentary sense of justice and fairness frequently informs her actions. Magic (also known as altering the very nature of reality) and physical violence are tools to bring about a desired result, as are logic, emotional manipulation, reciprocity, and all other applications of intelligence. There is a key for every lock, although sometimes that key is a hairpin. And sometimes it is a sledgehammer.

Maggie has a complicated relationship or lack thereof with her parents. Her mother is around constantly, but cold, cruel and emotionally distant. They have more of a student/teacher dynamic than parent/child, and occasionally develop conflicting viewpoints and engage in no-holds-barred arguments, some of which Maggie is beginning to win. Her father is affectionate, physically demonstrative and fun, but only home four times a year for a week or two at most. Ocean trips with him and visits to distant family are on offer, but she prefers her friends and her various entanglements in San Rosille, and she has gotten used to his absence. When comfort and support is required, she will go to her father if he is around, but more often ends up relying on others in the household. Erik is her preferred confidant for serious matters, but in stressful situations she is prone to breaking down at odd times and having to rely on whoever is in the room. Most of the household is used to dealing with horrific stress and if comfort is required they will all at least make an attempt at providing it. Under a dearth of parental influence, Maggie is learning gentleness and sympathy piecemeal. It is likely she will get the hang of it, like everything else. In the meantime, her friends are still subjected to occasional cruelty and punching.

Maggie doesn’t get out a lot, and she has yet to commit to a genre of music. She prefers things she can dance to, sitting still and listening being nowhere near as fun. She claims ‘Turkey in the Straw’ is a favorite, but this may be in part because it annoys Mordecai to play it. Presumably, she would also enjoy ‘Cotton-Eye Joe’ by Rednex, if she encountered it.

History

War Baby

Maggie was conceived in the middle of a long war, which proceeded to go on even longer and get way more personal. Even then her parents rarely saw each other, but Sanaam’s command of a ship offered opportunities to rendezvous. The General had intended to produce a child, and damn the circumstances. There is never a good time for that sort of thing when you’re engaging in a military career and she felt it her responsibility to provide an heir out of respect for her family and the nation.

Maggie was born, stubbornly, in a hospital near the front lines, and as soon as possible spirited away to the relative safety of her father’s ship. She lived a primarily nautical existence, splitting her time between the ship with her father, and a small island in the south seas, entirely removed from the fighting, where her grandparents could take care of her. There were occasional visits with a mean, scary lady who claimed to be her mother and gifted her with detailed hand-written lesson plans. These were not too strictly adhered to by her current caregivers, even her father, but she got a foundation in math, magic, literacy and enjoying herself.

Fast Changes

The war and the fun times ended abruptly in 1371. Maggie had just turned five. An attempt was made to introduce the newly-retired General to island life, moving her in with Maggie’s grandparents. This would have been very nice and very safe if not for the personality conflicts involved. Maggie, her grandparents, and the island itself did not react well to an influx of military discipline. Sanaam returned home after a short stint attempting to deliver supplies and clarify the nature of his employment to find shattered relationships and an intolerable situation. He took his wife and daughter with him on the ship, but this also proved unstable. After a frantic search for someplace that would put up with his wife so he could keep his job, Sanaam discovered a house in San Rosille with suitably liberal attitudes towards magic and managed to convince the General to at least try living there. Maggie was none too pleased about being uprooted again and blew a hole in the boat in an argument over whether the ship’s cat was going to come live with them. If nothing else, this underlined the fact that ship life was untenable. Sanaam left soon after getting his wife and daughter settled.

Her mother’s indignation aside, Maggie didn’t have too much trouble adjusting to colored people and a rude lady. However, she found Erik, two years younger than her and much less educated, to be intolerably stupid. She snidely corrected his assumptions about Santa Claus a couple weeks before his third birthday, and received her own reality check when this resulted in tears. Maggie was not accustomed to making small children cry and found she did not enjoy the experience. She put forth an effort in kindness and eventually came to appreciate Erik’s somewhat incompetent friendship.

Barnaby’s arrival at the house proved more difficult to accept. Maggie was more used to coldness and isolation during disagreements than screaming. She spent many nights curled up under blankets with her hands over her ears, terrified, while Hyacinth tried to pummel the crazy old man into some semblance of sanity. She had no confidants at this time and no recourse but to wait it out. As the screaming decreased, she was better able to cope with things and Barnaby became more of an annoyance than a monster. Milo and Ann, who moved in a few months later, provided at first a mystery, and then fun. With stability, acceptance, and plenty of opportunities to employ her skill, Maggie blossomed from serious, insecure, and unhappy with her situation to the ringleader we now know.

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