[Scenario Seed/Character] An Ordinary Girl.
Jun 6, 2022 21:24:42 GMT
greyhame, grinch, and 1 more like this
Post by Catsmate on Jun 6, 2022 21:24:42 GMT
Another idea from my notes. Loosely inspired by this filk
An Ordinary Girl.
It happened ten years ago. One cold, dark winter’s evening she was found, outside a cinema in Liverpool. She looked about twelve, dishwater blonde hair and violet eyes, wearing old blue gingham dress and broken shoes. Most of the passers-by ignored her, standing there with a dazed expression. One couple didn’t, and the ponderous machinery of bureaucracy was stirred into action and enveloped her; police, hospital, social services, charities, the media, television appeals, the mentally ill.
There was nothing to identify her. No-one knew who she was. Not unexpected her fingerprints weren't on record, more surprisingly DNA tests didn’t match her with anyone, even a remote familial match. She was the three-days-wonder1 of the media, until the next story broke. Quietly the couple who found her fostered and later adopted her. The medics had decided she was about twelve2, so they had a twelfth birthday party for Alison when she joined them, She gained parents and a large, rather boisterous and friendly extended family.
They called her Alison (her new mother quietly but firmly vetoed ‘Alice’3) and she grew up, quiet, thoughtful and smart. Always enveloped in the love of her new family, protected and cared for.
But she wanted to know who she was.
A university scholarship (and wasn’t her dad proud?) to study art and history.
Then the package arrived. Due to the number of agencies involved it had gone from pillar to post until the clearing out of an old case archive had turned it up and some clerk had sent it to her parents address for her.
1. Things run faster in the media age, no nine days anymore.
2. They also found her to be free from any trace of drug use, any commonly tested-for diseases and all compulsory childhood vaccinations.
3. She was not one to tempt fate.
An Ordinary Girl.
It happened ten years ago. One cold, dark winter’s evening she was found, outside a cinema in Liverpool. She looked about twelve, dishwater blonde hair and violet eyes, wearing old blue gingham dress and broken shoes. Most of the passers-by ignored her, standing there with a dazed expression. One couple didn’t, and the ponderous machinery of bureaucracy was stirred into action and enveloped her; police, hospital, social services, charities, the media, television appeals, the mentally ill.
There was nothing to identify her. No-one knew who she was. Not unexpected her fingerprints weren't on record, more surprisingly DNA tests didn’t match her with anyone, even a remote familial match. She was the three-days-wonder1 of the media, until the next story broke. Quietly the couple who found her fostered and later adopted her. The medics had decided she was about twelve2, so they had a twelfth birthday party for Alison when she joined them, She gained parents and a large, rather boisterous and friendly extended family.
They called her Alison (her new mother quietly but firmly vetoed ‘Alice’3) and she grew up, quiet, thoughtful and smart. Always enveloped in the love of her new family, protected and cared for.
But she wanted to know who she was.
A university scholarship (and wasn’t her dad proud?) to study art and history.
Then the package arrived. Due to the number of agencies involved it had gone from pillar to post until the clearing out of an old case archive had turned it up and some clerk had sent it to her parents address for her.
- Three photographs. All are colour and 16 x 10cm. One shows a girl, Alice aged about ten. The second shows a pair of adult human, male and female, in a clearly posed, formal, posture. The third shows a large cat.
- Nine gold coins. Each weighs 700 grains (45.36 grammes) and is 91.6% gold (22-karat, the rest is copper giving them a reddish colour). Notes included in the bundle indicate the marking are worn, or perhaps stamped badly, but correspond to no known minted coins.
- A twelve pointed star, 11cm in diameter, a think layer of gold plated onto a copper/silver alloy, with a spectrum of coloures enamelled onto the points, much battered.
- A small silver cat statuette, with green eyes. Actually about a quarter kilogramme of rhodium with emeralds for eyes, though no-one has noted this.
- A chunk of impure graphite, weighing about 75 grammes.
- A flattened oval chunk of deep blue glass, about 8cm long, 4cm wide and 1.5cm thick. The edges are rounded.
- A pocket knife with three attachments; one is a still sharp 8cm metal blade, one a short (~4cm) rather blunt blade made from ivory or bone, the third a small prying tool.
- A worn, mended, dress made of a blue gingham pattern, cotton.
1. Things run faster in the media age, no nine days anymore.
2. They also found her to be free from any trace of drug use, any commonly tested-for diseases and all compulsory childhood vaccinations.
3. She was not one to tempt fate.
Me, red herrings? Perish the thought....