Original Quest: Emily Lee NicholsAge: 48
Birthday: September 15th, 1958
Race: English and German (some French)
Marital Status: Married
Family: William Nichols (husband), Aaron Nichols (son), Robert Vogler (younger brother), Mark Vogler (older brother), Charlotte Vogler (mother), Lewis Vogler (father)
Birthplace: Fairfield, Pennsylvania
Residence: Arlington, Virginia
Occupation: Unemployed
Vehicle: A beat-up Subaru Outback
Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite Gemstone: Opal
Favorite Beverage: Hot apple cider
Known Likes: Plants, shopping, exotic food, meeting new people, napping, antiques
Known Dislikes: Asps (yee-ouch), smarmy business people, spiders, most technology, hospitals
Pets: A goldfish or two (allergic to fur and mouse-a-phobic)
Physical Description: Medium height and very sturdy. Though she eats reasonably well and moves around quite a bit, Emily is a heavy woman. If she undertook a serious dieting program she'd lose that poundage, but only then, because she's that way naturally. Her tan hair is streaked with gray and is cut below the shoulder. Emily sometimes has her hair pulled up in barrettes (especially when working in the garden) but often has it hanging loose. Her arms and legs are muscled from yardwork and the bottoms of her palms rough.
More round and personable than pretty, she has a very interesting face nonetheless - deep lines around her wide mouth and hazel eyes, expressive eyebrows, and a crooked nose, possibly from spills taken as a kid. She wears clear contacts but also has a pair of bright red reading glasses from her son, whose taste in accessories leaves much to be desired.
In clothing her taste is expensive - not overdone or top fashion, but the finest, most comfortable material, tasteful style and always a good brand. Most skirts and shorts drive her crazy. You'll usually see her in a solid colored shirt, jeans or capris and sneakers. It's the basic outfit. Add on the jewelry. Usually a necklace, earrings and several rings on each hand, probably opal, her favorite gemstone.
If you're talking distinguishing marks, there aren't many. Her skin doesn't scar easily, so there's a few on her arms and legs but none very unique. Her left ear has two piercings almost side by side from a botched piercing job, and since she was a teenager at the time who didn't care what people thought, she kept 'em both. Nowadays it's hardly something worth mentioning...except the placing is very awkward. In bad weather her right leg also carries a limp, years wearing the old injury down.
Personality: One thing matters most to her: family. Emily was on her own for most of her life and now is sinking into the warmth and safety of having a family. This life is new to her, so she's testing the waters, staying at home most of the day and working in the garden while always keeping an eye out for Aaron. On the outside she's easily forgotten - kind, hardworking, patient. Just looking, you wouldn't even guess she has a wicked streak buried in there. It's something that surprises even her from time to time. Say that Bill's invited someone she doesn't like over for dinner. They might 'accidently' end up with soup in their lap, or the worst seat at the table, the one that collapses when you sit on it. Maybe these little slips help her be good the rest of the time.
With Emily it's an all-or-nothing deal when it comes to people. Generally, she's open to meetings and friendly conversation. She doesn't actively seek out company but is perfectly happy in the midst of it. But for the rare case that strikes her enmity...watch out. It may only be the small things that show, like the soup in the lap, but when Emily figures someone to be an enemy, there isn't an if or but about it - they are an
enemy. When it comes to her family she's less subtle. She can be downright hostile to anyone who threatens either her husband or son. Bill's good at pacifying her, and they do love each other dearly...but she's overprotective nonetheless. The thought of losing them is terrifying. Without Bill, a sweet and gentle man who is her better half, or Aaron, a welcoming tornado of energy, life wouldn't be worth living any more.
Regarding herself...mostly she's come to terms with her physical self and thinks of it rarely, but as an adolescent she was incredibly insecure about her weight. That insecurity pops up at times. She feels safest in her comfort zones but wanders willingly into the greater world without a second thought.
Emily is pretty OCD, but only on specific things (like safety). She's NOTHING compared to how bad Bill is. There's a big contrast between the Emily of today and of her past. She used to be very impulsive and met with a horrible accident because of it; going down to mess in a quarry was a very impulsive idea and she would never dream of it nowadays. It's mostly the accident's fault, but having a miserable time in college dampened it as well. She put her adventurous nature aside to concentrate on getting ahead in life.
The friends she has are solid and good. They meet up for parties every so often to catch up. But the rest of the time her social interaction is reduced to family and the guy at the grocery store. Emily doesn't realize she's become something of a hermit lately.
Background: For the first 14 years of her life, Emily didn't go anywhere. Her town was one of those small country towns way back when, a tiny oasis of civilization in the midst of farms and mountains. Their house had the prestigous spot of being in the middle of town which is also where her father worked as a mechanic. He was handy with it. Their house was filled with spare auto parts that constantly drove her mother to distraction, but her brothers loved to mess with. It was no wonder that the two started to help their father once they got older. Emily was left out as they drifted away to more teenagerly duties. Not having her two brothers who'd always been there was a strange, lonely feeling. For a while she hung around the mechanics shop trying to be interested in wrenches and chains and cables, and while she picked up some tricks of the trade while there, found she wasn't very interested at all. When she wasn't in school, the pudgy little girl was tumbling around the countryside by herself. As she also got older she drifted away from nature and hung out with kids from school more, and spent the rest of the time helping Mom work at home. Her mother was always in support of "what a woman should be like" - mild and agreeable - but times where she got to teach Emily this were few and far between, with Emily's school and her friends, so the lessons didn't really stick. Her dad could care less. He worked most of the day so they barely crossed paths.
One of the town's main features was a quarry. With all the heavy equipment rolling around and the dangerous, steep drops, they were strictly forbidden to go there. Of course, this didn't stop anyone. Emily, Mark and Rob were clambering around on the rocks one day chucking weeds at each other and goofing off in a rare moment of sibling friendship...when one of her sneakers found a pile of leaves, slipped, and sent the girl tumbling down into the quarry.
Her leg was shattered. At 15 this was disastarous - no more running, no more sports, no more anything. It meant her adventuring days were at an end, in both the physical and mental sense - imagining another fall like that was unbearable, and since then she's only been comfortable on sure ground. The local doctors weren't capable of healing such a serious injury and she knew if it healed wrong, that would be it. Emily fell into a dark depression. For the first time she skipped school as a regular habit. All she felt capable of doing was sitting and waiting for it to heal wrong. Out of desperation, she begged her parents to let her go and find a better doctor. She PROMISED to pay them back.
The only reason they let her was because her aunt, uncle and cousin lived out where she wanted to go. They sent a letter ahead to the school district of both counties for enrollment advice, and when a reply came back they sent her off. She enrolled in the local school while she was recovering and lived in her relatives' apartment as a tenant, in return for helping to keep house. It got easier once her leg got better. Her parents were not willing to leave her in the city from there on out, so she was shuttled home many times. Rob and Mark were getting old enough to be on their own so their perceptions of how much she needed to be looked over changed - the visits got shorter and fewer. Being out there without anything from home was lonely, but exciting as well.
At 20 she moved down the street and started working several jobs. Full time at a pharmacy counter, weekends between a salon and bookstore. Life went on. Nothing of momentem happened for years, except things that she remembers - like the week her brothers called and said they'd be going for a road trip, and would she like to come along? After that her dreams were deep with the Grand Canyon and the sights she saw along the way.
At 28 it was time for college. Odd jobs were okay, but a career would feel so
fulfilling. A college in Shippensburg had the things she liked and after closing off loose ends and ties she moved, alone for the first time. College was a wakeup call. Being shuttled between home and her city school, she didn't have an exemplary education, and found college to be very difficult. It made her feel pretty stupid, honestly. It took time, but her energetic nature slowly filtered out under a desire to learn. It further sloughed away when she submitted an application to a city school and found it to be a pretty nasty place. The job had good points and bad points, but the idea of shifting around again was even less desirable. So she stuck with the school despite how much it darkened her spirits.
Her future husband, William, worked in Alexandria as an accountant. The two met when he was taking a vacation to visit his Pennsylvanian sister, and was waiting for to come back from errands in a local cafe. The woman showed up long after she was supposed to and by then the two had become acquainted. It took a while before they got together even then...busy lives and everything. The distance, once he went back home, didn't help, but they kept in touch. Two years later they got married.
At age 39, after 7 years of teaching, they moved for the last time into Arlington, Virginia, on a street shaded by trees. Two more years she made the commute into Alexandria as a teacher, and then her career became second to a new love: her newborn son. Aaron. And so things continue to this day. Aaron is growing up. Her days are kept busy with house upkeep, especially her vegetable and flower gardens out front. She still meets her parents sometimes and is regularily visited by Rob and Mark, Rob still living in Fairfield, Mark a talented mechanic up in New York. Life is practically perfect. Of course, it is not meant to last...
Relationships:Mother: Emily and her don't usually agree, but they get along. Mom was always a quiet soul but she does have very strong opinions, and only voices them when a challenge is on the horizon. Still, despite their differences, the two are at even terms with one another.
Father: Actually pretty good. Her father recently had a heart attack. Since then she's gotten to know him a lot better than she ever had, by her resolve to visit more often. Their friendship is strengthened by Emily taking his side in the recent family drama - Mom wants him to stay in the hospital and rest, because she's worried he won't be safe enough at home (sound familiar, Emily?). Pap wants to be at home with his family, which she is fighting for as well.
Mark: Not a close one. Mark has always been the most distant from her. He likes to get the most out of life and doesn't understand why she's always settled for less, and...really doesn't understand her in general. Nonetheless, he's happy enough in New York, married, with a couple tots that Emily enjoys visiting.
Robert: Her younger brother and a good one. Rob's the giver in the family - he's sticking by his parents now that their other children have flown the coop and is working towards becoming a main figure in his community, working with the township to organize fairs, fundraisers and all sorts of other things. The two are very close.
Other relatives: The aunt, uncle and cousin she lived with as a teen don't keep in touch any more. Her cousin is away in college and her aunt and uncle keep to themselves.
Her grandmother on her mom's side, Carol Marie, is the French part of the family and died when Emily was a baby. Grandma Vogler lives in California with her husband and terrorizes the family that lives there - one half lives on the east coast, the other the west. They've only had one big family reunion that Emily remembers vividly, smack in the middle of the country, and they haven't had one since. Hmm. I wonder why.
Aaron and BillAaron's two favorite things in the world are as follows: super heroes and sea creatures. Thus, Spiderman vs. the Giant Squid is not out of the question - usually this 7 year old, brown haired and blue eyed energy tornado is out in the garden splashing in the bird bath and shrieking, or running inside the house (and shrieking) or pestering Emily/Bill (while shrieking).
Basically, he's a little boy. He comes with the typical arguing and stupid jokes, but on the rare times that he's tired, can actually be a very attentive learner. He's pretty good with helping out in the garden. You couldn't tell this by his school record, which is pretty bad, but he learns when he feels like and does it well. Computers bore him like crazy, but music...there's another story. He has his own guitar now.
At only 7 he's becoming a social giant among his peers. The house is plagued by boys on the weekends. Never girls. Ever. Already he's got the makings of one of the 'popular' crowd in school, but hopefully his sense will make him into a reasonable young man.
Bill is very calm and quiet. Of the two of them, he likes order the most - his office, closet and part of the bedroom is tidy as can be, whereas Emily's is on the slightly messy side. He's lean, taller than Emily, with short dirty blonde hair, blue eyes and wears glasses with thin frames. The simplest things tend to nag at him, like a tie missing, the wrong cereal on the breakfast shelf, the slightly blurry picture. He's also slightly shy but can always be counted on as a friend.
The one time Emily has ever seen him blow up is when she announced her pregnancy. He didn't say anything, but he got more and more distressed as the week went on, and when she finally asked him what was wrong, exploded that they couldn't afford it, especially if she left her job. Later on he apologized, looking like a wounded puppy. All those little worries that plague him normally just added up and went out of control.
So that was his one moment of anger. The rest of the time he's peaceful and very thoughtful; he tends to be a workaholic (he's addicted to workahol) and is often out of sorts in the mornings, sighing and drooping. After some coffee he's perfectly fine. Bill is a city boy at heart and the fact his work is in Alexandria does him good. He's lived in the area all his life.
The mythGryphons (or griffins) are a well known symbol of heraldy. The typical gryphon is half eagle, half lion, and is a symbol of divine power. As the eagle is considered king of the birds and the lion king of the beasts, it's no wonder the gryphon was considered to be an incredible creature.
They are said to be as much of a hoarder as dragons - if the Scythian gold stories are anything to go by. If strangers approached wanting the precious stones and gold to be found in the Scythian steppes, the gryphons living there would tear the intruders to pieces. It was also said to be a guard of gold mines and hidden treasures.
The places where these creatures live vary account to account. Nonetheless, in all of these descriptions we find two similarities: Gryphons are located in the eastern and northern areas of Asia; and they are always found in the mountains.
Horses and gryphons are said to be mortal enemies. The extremely rare offspring of the two is known as a hippogriff, and is used as a symbol of the everlasting power of love. Gryphons are a popular symbol in heraldry and there may be a good reason for putting them on shields: the sight of the gryphon symbol would instill fear in the horses of the enemy. Lesser known enemies of the gryphon are the Arimaspians, one eyed men who were neighbors of the gold-loving gryphs in Scythia, and who started the hatred of horses because they attacked the gryphons on horseback. Gryphons and the Amazons also warred.
One writer, Stephen Scotus, said gryphons were strictly monogamous. They mated for life and if one of the pair died, the other would never find another mate and live the rest of its life alone. Unlike other hybrids of the natural world, like mules, they are able to reproduce. Either a gryphon lays its eggs in a cave or make a nest of its own like an eagle - the accounts differ. If cave-laying, the mother would find a cave with a narrow entrance but plenty of room inside, safe from the elements, where she would then lay 3 eggs and guard them. The eggs were also claimed to be sapphires or agates. Warm sand is the best medium for hatching them; the baby gryphon is ravenous, much like any other baby animal, and eats its own weight every 4 hours. If they're destined to be a talking gryphon, they start talking very quickly, within weeks. All gryphons are smart, but whether it's human-smart or animal-smart depends. Some have abilities to rival humans or surpass them in speech, intelligence and magic.
According to Stephen Friar, a gryphon's claw was believed to have medicinal properties and one of its feathers could restore sight to the blind. In the world of Tortall the fletched feathers of a gryphon will cause an arrow to always fly true and have the lie-detecting effects of the live gryphon on a smaller scale. It is said that a poisoned liquid will change colors if served in a cup fashioned from a gryphon's claw. The only way one could acquire a gryphon's claw though, in legend, is by a holy man who cured a gryphon of some illness and received the claw as payment for his kindness. Gryphons have immunity to the poison of dragons. Whether this passes on to be useful in their feathers or claws is unknown.
What does a gryphon LOOK like? The most widespread look is that the front half of the creature, the wings and the talons and head, are entirely birdlike. The bird's head often has pointed ears which can be long and horselike as well. The back half, the hindquarters and tail, are feline - usually lion. Sometimes the tail is descripted as being a serpent. Still, people have found a thousand different ways to describe it. The Gryphon Pages describes it best:
Our general portrayal of the Gryphon however, is one of a lion with an eagle's head, forefeet and wings, and straight horse-like ears. A Gryphon with a serpent's tail, by Helen RichEarlier though, it was hard for the Gryphon to keep a concrete shape when no one had actually "seen" the beast. Thus, the Gryphon has been attributed with the head of a falcon, hawk and eagle, the forefeet of a lion and eagle, and the hind-parts of a panther, dog, and lion. It has had the regular tail of a lion, a lion's tail with feathers at the end, and a serpent's tail. It has had sharp horse-like ears and floppy spainel-like ears. It is shown sometimes with a tuft of beard under it's beak, a lion's mane covering it's neck, and sometimes it did not even have wings. The beak has been sharp and soft, often with teeth or tusks. From it's forehead have risen two horns and a decorative knob. It was also written at various times that Gryphons had red crests, dark blue necks, black bodies, white wings and firey eyes.Some strange differences occur in descriptions of the gryphon - like the "male gryphon". What exactly is this about? It's hard to tell >> Apparently this gryphon lacks wings and has rays/spikes of gold protruding from its body, and may also have long horns. "Alce" and "keythong" are words that have been used to describe it.
At the moment, her final form would be a gryphon with an osprey front and white lion hindquarters. Small black ears, eyes very brown for a bird of prey, feathered lion's tail and lacking in thumbs, though her lion hind legs would have a dewclaw more like an osprey's. It's also possible she'd have a mane like the Spiderwick gryphon.
Why osprey? Well...they're cool. And I'm just plain fond of a sea-dwelling gryph. Nothing would come from the animal except for the love of water, looks and diet. She would be entirely gryphon in nature.
ReferencesThe Gryphon PagesWikipediaTamora Pierce's books
Alice in Wonderland (just 'cuz it's fun)
Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You
(gryphon cover)The Pinhoe Egg, The Dark Lord of Derkholm and Year of the Gryphon by Diana Wynne Jones
MagicMagnetism deals with the force that binds things together. In Emily's case, this is people; she has a strong understanding of the ways we are connected and is a central part of her own little web, her family.
Earth is a big part of her personality. The core of her is very unpredictable, but outside she is a good, patient and kind person. Her love of plants also helps this but it's not as important.
Why gryphon?The choice of gryphon would be confusing to her, but it would indeed feel right. Not only for Emily's basic nature but for her fierce protectiveness, like a mother lion guarding her cubs or a falcon her nest. They keep a close eye on their valuables and take great lengths to keep them safe, which is true not only for her personal possessions but for her family, the most precious thing she has. The gryphon's devotion to its mate is like her own as well. If Bill ever left, she's not sure she would be able to find another man to be happy with. He is The One.
PukkaA golden wedding ring found buried in the garden at the end of a long day. Inscribed simply:
Carol Marie. The name of her grandmother...it feels like too much of a coincidence. But why would it be here? At this house, where she had never been?
She talks it over with Bill but he's convinced it doesn't mean anything. The next morning she goes downstairs to inspect it once again in the sunlight, to see if there's anything she missed, giving the pukka the moment of isolation it needs to work.
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Chibi Emily by Iee
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