GRANITE STREET

Eartha

Personal Trainer
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0
Known Aliases
Earth, Edyth, EB, Sheila Rose
Color #
C17E00
South Boston
August, 1989



Boston Harbor’s piscatory breeze gave way to wafts of grease and cigarettes tinged with an endnote of stale urine as Dr. Tom Bradlee approached the “Little Poland” section of Andrew Square. He surveyed the densely populated area while parking. The faded beige of unmarked buildings backdropped the loud aesthetic of the neighborhood’s inhabitants. Cliques of adolescent girls, gossiping in Baltic languages, masked the privation in their pretty features with bright makeup and hair resourcefully tinted with flavored drink mix. The small group of Vietnamese youths rebelled against parents with piercings and garish attire. While looking for the orphanage, Tom came upon a lioness den of rotund European widows in gaudy swimsuits. Their plastic lawn seats blocked the sidewalk. His attempt to circumvent them proved unsuccessful.

“Where you go?” inquired one, replacing what she lacked in grammar with volume.

“Saint Brigid’s” he replied. The matriarchs digested this, tensing with disapproval.

“Ok. I take you.” she brusquely informed him, clutching his arm. The entire group escorted him down the street.

“ They have only girls, you know. And, I tell you this, daughters today are not the same quality. She gonna make trouble for you.” one warned.

“She already make trouble for him!” shouted another.

“When I was daughter, you never see nice father search for me on streets like dog for food.” another one chimed in.

This tirade against the hypothetical daughter continued until they reached the historic building. He thanked them and they marched away, immediately recapping the event.

A half hour later, Tom sat in the main office with Lisa Shay, the volunteer director at the orphanage. Having grown up in Boston, her tough accent permeated the space like spilled perfume.

“I never heard of sports psychology before, Dr. Bradlee. Sounds kinda queer. You really think this study’s gonna help with these kids?” she asked dubiously, then regretted her tone. Despite her disbelief, this experiment could mean a freed bed.

“If we saw any negative effects, the project would cease immediately. However, that is unlikely. Similar studies have been conducted before on a smaller scale with street kids. Not only were the children provided with a higher quality of life but valuable developmental information is uncovered each time. That information can be useful for the coaching and support of future Olympians.” he replied calmly, noting her sudden excitement at that last part. “May I look through her file?”

“I gotta be honest, Agnieszka causes a lot of trouble.” she said, handing over the re-used manila folder. “The only reason we’ve kept her is because she has protected the other girls from outside violence, which used to be an issue. Now they need less supervision when outside which means the nuns get more done inside. We can’t afford janitors.”

Tom read through Agnieszka Mikolajczak’s list of offenses. Although advanced for a small child, it was nothing too shocking for him, given his extensive searching. A certain amount of aggression was needed for viable candidates and he used juvenile records for his leads. He was more surprised at the mental image of a little girl fighting off adult assailants.

“She have any hobbies besides sports? It says here she likes reading.” he pointed.

“Oh, yes. That is only partially true, unfortunately. She learned early and within a year was devouring books. The Bible. Mythology. The nuns were wicked pleased until, one night, one was cleaning and they found a whole stash under her bed of torn-out pages from all the romantic parts of the books. You being a fancy mind doctor, you probably got some explanation. But the nuns were very upset. They worry about when she gets older…”she trailed off.

He nodded in understanding. There were explanations for the orphaned girl’s fascination, but he didn’t have time to go into them. Instead, he asked to meet her. Ms. Shay returned in a few minutes with the child. He turned, taking in an unexpected muscular convexity and light green cast to her hair. The girl, with her triangulated build and tsunami eyes, gazed at him with bald curiosity. Visits from outsiders meant a potential ease of scarcity. Sometimes they resulted in attention. And, on rare occasions, they meant a quality of life upgrade with blankets or fruit. He warmly introduced himself, deciding not to keep her on tenterhooks.

“I work at an academy for children. We could use a strong girl like you around. You would stay at our residence and have access to our amenities. There’s a gym and a library. Other strong kids. You’d make lots of friends.” he added. “Would you like that?”

She nodded once. He decided to cement matters.

“‘Agnieszka’ is too difficult for the other kids to pronounce. We could shorten it or give you a nickname. You choose. What would you like to be called?” he waited patiently. She softened her gaze, thinking of the heroine of a romance novel she had stolen earlier this year.

“I want to be called Eartha.” she replied, her voice having a combination of Lisa’s dropped ‘R’s and the Polish nuns’ choked vowels.

“Eartha, it is.” he affirmed, taking her hand.
 

Ivy

Commander
Best answers
0
Known Aliases
Iv', Ives
Color #
008080
I'm speechless! This is excellent!
 

Tanya

Press Director
Best answers
0
Known Aliases
Yana, Tanya, Tanechka, TanYUchen'ka, TanyUs'ka
Color #
bb4d6d
Hope to see more of Eartha, this is great.
 

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    I even have the site white listed, for a wild shot can any of you post a new question in the guessing game I had set up
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  • Jon Eckart Jon Eckart:
    ((OOC: So, I am still here (at least, while ACP is still a thing, then I have to tether my phone to my laptop, send it's internet to Ethernet to my router and setup my other laptop to access that... I managed it once totally by accident)... updating stuff I'm working on is not a fun process (if anyone checks my stories folder on my Google Drive) anymore... the laptop at my desk is old (Core 2 Duo, 2Ghz, 4 gigs RAM, Win7 Ultimate)... Chrome won't update, Drive won't work... I'm stuck using FreeFileSync to keep stuff up to datep things synced. I have plans of getting a job and having money to have something better (a doorstop is better)
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  • Jon Eckart Jon Eckart:
    [continuing] I'm sorry if any of my posts are/could be inflammatory or anything... some of them are stuff I've had in the pipeline for a while, and I messed with it enough to get it postable... that's why there are dates showing when I started working on stuff... I'm not, and never have been, trying to step on anyone's toes or say "this is how it should be"... I have no say here, not sure who does these days (like I posted... maybe this is a test to see if we devolve into chaos). Posts like Hierarchy were started long ago, and meant as a guideline and not because I'm the voice of Sauron.
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    [continuing] I don't have the time to be here a whole lot, I don't have much beyond mom to help with my rent (and once I have a job, that'll take up more time, though I will keep working on stuff (both for here and not) as often as possible, and post when possible on here. I have a question that needs some clarification... being that we are supposed to get permission from the person if we use their character in an addition/story/post, how would that apply if the character is core to the universe (like Carmen... I can replace @Chase, maybe cobble someone into @Ivy's place... but, like @Carmen, being that she's a major character, as long as I don't have her acting or write a major part for her, would that circumvent the rule at all?
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    [continuing] I'm just curious... the absence of the major's leaves a gap that I'm not sure what to do with anything... we (the Left Behind) could do a story together (or some stories separate), and that'd be cool, but without being able to use any major's, I'm not sure where to take anything. And, yeah... you can probably guess what my typing is like here (or anyplace else)... I type here or in Word, I type something (or notepad), and 15-20+ seconds later it shows up, so I have to stay on top of my grammar and spelling. I have to keep on top of all that, because I'm working on the big Carmen story at the same time, so I can't slip off my game.))
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  • Julie Justice Julie Justice:
    @Jon Eckart Not exactly sure if I understand all your computer probs. I hope you get those resolved soon. Yes, I have many probs with my basic Google Chrome, too. I think it's fair to say we all have a love/hate relationship with technology. 😆 As far as your stories are concerned, you can use any cannon character you like, whether there is a person playing that role on here or not. Say the story is a fanfiction; and that the version of Chase, or Carmen (or whoever) from the computer games, gameshow (or whatever). We don't do Netflix Carmen, mostly because of the violence. And because it is fanfiction, you can also create other characters and situations to suit your story. Now, Chase, Carme, Ivy (or whoever) were here, of course, you would ask their permission; tell them your idea; and if they like it they might write it with you. 🙂
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    @Jon Eckart Now, if you for a friendship with someone on--and off-site, you might form a partnership with them, and write stories together (like Chase and Carmen; or Chase and Ivy; or Lucy and I) and then you will just put a statement saying that this story is a co-write with whoever. In fact, if you collaborate with this person a lot, people will just assume they have your permission; although you should always say it anyway, just as a common courtesy. In fact, ironically, the only people whose permission you must always ask to use their characters are "original" characters, who are creations of their individual writers (which most of us on here, are) specifically because we are not cannon. I hope that makes sense. 🙂
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    @Jon Eckart Now, if you want to write something, but don't have a lot of time, I would suggest posting a status; or replying to someone else's status. Or you could start a guessing game. Look under Forums/Guessing Games, and look at some things other people have done, to give you ideas. I hope that helps. 🙂
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