Phoenix was raised in a cult of assassins and trained to be a killer. Despite the violence and death worship around her, she somehow maintained a conscience and a horror for what she was a part of. As a teenager she escaped the cult and now works with a team of CAPES (an occupation similar to a bounty hunter or U. S. Marshall) for whom she deeply cares. It soon becomes clear to Phoenix that her former cult is involved in the case CAPES team is investigating. She would never want her teammates to know her past but to not speak up will put them in danger. Fear makes her want to run from ever again confronting the cult (b/c rejecting the cult is tantamount to a long but certain death) but she also can't abandon her friends, even though if they know the truth about her, they would reject her. Her childhood training made her cautious and calculating but also violent with a will of steel. She is quick tempered, isolated, intensely reserved, and self hating. When the situation comes to a head and they're all forced to run or fight, will she be able to spill her guts and fess up to her friends? How can she possibly cope and face this situation?
Against a Wall, Somewhere in the Future
Dear Against a Wall,
Phoenix is in a tough spot, for sure. But you mentioned early on that she retained a horror about the things she was trained and carried out to do. That lets me know that her humanity is still in tact. You also said she's come to care for the CAPES team deeply. So she's going to try to protect them at all costs. I believe she'd try to keep her past a secret for as long as she can (out of self-preservation, which we all have)...but when the rubber meets the road and things come to a head, she will protect them by telling them and facing their rejection in order to save them. Because she is already isolative, she won't see this as the great sacrifice it really is, because their safety will mean more than her comfort or security. She's likely remember the choices she didn't make to do the right thing while within the cult, and not want that on her conscious either. I really don't see the other option of running as viable for her. She's more of an anti-hero, but she's still heroic...and running would be the opposite of heroic (and would make for a MUCH shorter book, lol!). Best of luck!
Dear Jeannie,
Monet is a teenage girl forced to relocate to a new high school after she was expelled. She does have kleptomania and is a bit of a juvenile delinquent, which was an important factor in her expulsion. Because of this, her entire family moved towns and she and her parents have regular fights. How would this affect her in a new school and how would the regular conflicts affect her family life?
Relocating
Dear Relocating,
Most juvenile delinquents aren't going to change just because their environment did. If she's into stealing, then that compulsion doesn't go away. However, if she was involved in a "bad" group of kids in her previous town, and she gets in with the right kids in the new town, it's feasible she could change. But operating on the assumption that she is still involved in delinquent acts of stealing, she's going to continue to have school trouble and, of course, arguments with her parents, who aren't going to be able to keep moving b/c of her. Depending on how she views going to a new school, it could be a clean slate, or she could take up the mantle of a "troubled kid." Only you would know which one she'd most likely want. Her family life would deteriorate without intervention, and she'd gravitate toward more delinquent acts without a firm structure in place. Doesn't sound very good! But if you have more information that you'd want to share below that might change things, feel free! Thanks for writing in.
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Georgina · 583 weeks ago
- Against a Wall
Anonymous · 583 weeks ago
Perry is a good-hearted, smart, and perfectly capable heir to his family's holdings. He's well-trained and self-possessed. Except around Rachel. Every time she moves, or breathes, or speaks, she sends him into an absolute frenzy of idiocy. She makes him clumsy, physically, but more often with the things he says and always putting himself in the wrong. Rachel has no patience for fools, and works around him when she has to put up with him. His current coping strategy is to shut up and hold still if she's in the room. This is not helping him win her over.
The 'why' of this is partly a mystery. There's an element of attraction, but Perry's inability to work through that remains a bit of a puzzle for me. More relevantly, what can he do to get over his perpetual gobsmackedness around her? He's tried befriending her loved ones, fighting her enemies, and providing aid in whatever form he can, but she ignores, misconstrues, or takes enormous offense at his efforts. Perry would like to be able to talk to her, but his brains dribble out his ears in her presence.
Foolish in Farmingham
Anon. · 582 weeks ago
Skylar, who had previously been an introspective, thoughtful child prone to moments of distraction, was given wings as part of a magical experiment at the age of nine by a mage who also happened to be the family doctor and the father of Skylar's best friend. Sky himself resented the lack of choice and this became even more of a problem over the next few years. With the help of another mage (although Sky and the other 'experiments' weren't aware of the fact) the 'experiments' set up a sort of youth club structure that Skylar found himself leaning on for support a lot.
Two years before the events of the book, Sky's sister, who'd found out about his wings, threatened to tell the police about Sky's wings if Sky didn't confess to their parents. When Sky told her that the threat wasn't particularly effective, she replied that maybe it wasn't, but she hadn't actually mentioned the real threat. The next time the 'experiments' all meet up, a stranger arrives and attacks them. Sky survives, albeit with angry scars across his face and a damaged voicebox that leaves him unable to speak above a whisper. One of his wings is also broken, preventing him from flying. The others are killed, including the mage who helped them. Sky blamed his sister for what happened and hasn't spoken to her since.
Now, at the age of fifteen, Sky is a bitter, mistrustful character who won't allow anyone but his two closest friends to get anywhere near him. Is this is a feasible reaction to what's happened to him and are there any other likely psychological effects? And since he loved flying and had almost learnt to accept what had been done to him because of that passion, how would he have reacted to being unable to fly?
A mage from a different group has recently tasked him with taking care of a young mage with unusually strong and poorly controlled powers. How would he react to this, and is there any feasible way for this task to push him to tell his friends (one of whom is the son of the mage who performed the experiment) about his wings? Thanks!
Broken in Baltimore