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The Player
User Name/Nick: Heather
User LJ: [livejournal.com profile] calluna 
AIM/IM: thefirstnotes
E-mail: heather.roleplays[@]gmail.com
Other Characters: n/a

The Character
Character Name: Fletcher Hadley
Character Journal: [livejournal.com profile] knowmycall 
Canon: Original
Age: 237
From When?: Mid-canon, about a month before being sworn in as the Order's Marshal. Scotland is on the verge of a(nother) civil war.

Abilities/Powers: Fletcher is an angel, but not. The Wood has seen creatures like him before; a human subspecies dubbed such due to the presence of wings and an ultimately honorable "calling."

His "angelic" powers include superhuman strength, speed, and stamina. He's larger than most humans as well. Thanks to a lower body temperature and slower heart rate, he can go some time without breathing—but he'd really rather not, thanks—and he has wings. His wings aren't white, however; Fletcher bears the wings of a Rainbow Bee-eater, because God apparently hates him. They have an approximate 15-foot span and serve no purpose other than to annoy him. (He tried flying once when he was a boy and nearly broke his neck.) He occasionally whips his wings out to impress the ladies, but they mostly come out when his Calling flares up.

Callings are determined by a number of factors, including personality and genetics. Fletcher is known as an Archangel in his world thanks to his Calling, which dictates that he kills every demon he comes across. This gives the rest of the world the impression that he is "good" and trying to destroy "evil." Archangels can usually detect demons nearby when their wings start to ache, itch, or generally feel uncomfortable. Once eye contact is made, instinct takes over. Some, over time, learn to control this urge—to some extent. Fletcher is among them.

Power Limitations: Fletcher will lose his ability to detect demons on instinct alone.

Inventory:
-1 gray wool trenchcoat, with a white armband sewn onto the left arm; the armband has 3 stripes in the middle: blue, with silver on either side
-1 pair of worn black leather combat boots
-1 pair of black wool socks
-1 pair of pleated dress pants, black
-1 black leather belt
-1 pair of gray briefs
-1 blue dress shirt
-1 fleece, tartan-patterned scarf (for inquiring minds, it's the Wallace tartan)
-1 knit cap, gray
-1 wallet, containing:
—2 £50 notes
—a tattered receipt from a chip shop
—Bank of Scotland credit card
—1 UK driving license
-1 pewter Celtic cross necklace
-1 butterfly knife, kept in his coat's inner pocket
-1 5" dagger, sheathed on his right calf
-1 pair leather gloves, in his pockets
-1 box of peppermint Altoids
-1 silver case, containing a small bag of marijuana, some rolling paper, and a lighter
-1 cell phone, 10% battery charge remaining
-1 analog watch
-1 pair eyeglasses, black-rimmed, in a case

Personality: Once upon a time, before Fletcher's wings showed up with a bloodthirsty calling in tow, he might've had the chance to be a normal, polite, stable, functioning member of society. He has since lost all hope for that.

Fletcher, in a word, is resigned. When he was a young, wingless boy, he dreamed of a life at sea with his own ship and his own crew and everything. He saw no other possibility; when other boys spoke of revolution and moving to America and becoming famous rock stars (not necessarily in that order), his mind wandered to what lay beyond Scotland's rocky shoreline. He wanted, very desperately, to leave his home and live among the fishes and sailors of the world.

And then puberty happened.

Fletch spent most of his teen years in a state of absolute terror. He didn't want to hurt people and he didn't understand why he wasn't like his parents, who were also angels. They tried to explain that there was always a chance he wouldn't be a knowledge angel like them, and that they and God loved him very much for what he was no matter what, but he never really accepted that. His sister, Hannah, was also a knowledge angel, and he hated her for that for a very long time. Part of him is still jealous.

He began experiencing night terrors at age 16 as a result of his Calling and subsequent behavior. They stuck with him through the first century of his life and really wore down his psychological defenses, not to mention his ability to sleep. It took him a while to get over all of that and, like his jealousy over Hannah's Calling, it's still not completely gone. If he's unlucky enough to have a nightmare, he'll usually wake up completely shaken.

Luckily, Fletcher isn't completely damaged. When he turned 18, he was recruited into the Order by his uncle—the only other archangel in his immediate family—and slowly began to accept and, to some extent, embrace who he is, if only out of necessity.

He loves his family very much and is especially protective of his sister. He considers her his best friend and most trusted confidant. It's not difficult for him to get close to other people, as he's very social (he's especially quite chatty with the womenfolk; he loves women and he loves sex and he's never tried to keep this a secret) and is careful to maintain his interpersonal relationships, but Hannah will always be his number one.

Fletcher isn't a Gemini, nor does he believe in astrology, but his personality is very dualistic. He can go from playful to brooding or quietly panicking or ready to rip faces off in 10.8 seconds (or any other variation of moods), and often does, as it takes very little to set him off. His mind is nowhere near stable; he's had more than a few nervous breakdowns in his time and though he's tried medications over the years, nothing's really worked. The only thing that seems to keep him together when he feels himself unraveling is pot.

“Natural born leader” isn't a term anyone would use to describe him, but he is very good at leading, even if his troops think he's a little mad from time to time. He knows how to keep people in line and can be very intimidating when he wants to be, but he's usually a gentleman. Mostly.

Deep down, though, Fletcher is bitter that he's had to submit to his fate. He still wants to live at sea (being a kid again wouldn't be bad, either—this desire leads to a bit of immaturity, at times), and part of him wants his little side project (he, his sister, and his two other best friends are in a band of sorts) to take off so he can go off and be rich and famous and stop giving a shit about everything. If he could give up his Calling, he would do so in a heartbeat. What's stopping him is all of Scotland; he feels a deep-rooted need to protect his country in his role as General of the Order and he'll push past all of his other problems to fulfill that need until the day he dies.

One important thing to mention is how Fletcher deals with romantic relationships, which is "not well at all." His mother once told him that as long as he loves, God will forgive him and he won't burn in Hell for all eternity. At some point, he totally misinterpreted what she said and, as a result, he now falls in love far too easily and has no qualms with dating multiple people at once, even though his mother had an affair that deeply hurt his entire family. This is, of course, a problem. Thankfully, in the past fifty years, he's been far too focused on keeping peace in Scotland to break any (more) hearts.

History: The Hadleys are a locally well-known and highly respected family of angels from the Scottish Highlands. Fletcher's parents, James and Margaret, were both Angels of Knowledge; his younger sister, Hannah, is also an Angel of Knowledge, and his younger brother, Spencer, died at age 22 from illness. Spencer was human. Fletch never heard his parents talk about that unsettling detail, even after Spencer died, but he supposes it was better that way. His parents both died of natural causes within 5 years of each other.

He isn't the only Archangel in the Hadley family; the very first Hadley to arrive in Scotland from England was William Hadley, who found his way to the country after fleeing London and its Great Plague in 1665. William was an Archangel, as were the two children he had with a young Angel of Healing named Gara Wallace, a descendant of William Wallace.

Fletch had a mostly normal childhood by early 19th-century Scottish standards, which means he went off to work as soon as he was able, and that was okay with him, especially since he got to work in a shipping yard by all the boats. The one thing that wasn't normal about his childhood was the fact that his parents were both AoKs, so he had the advantage of a makeshift education. His sister, Hannah, was born when he was 7 and his brother, Spencer, was born when he was 10.

It's tradition that all the Hadley archangels join an archangel militia called the Order of Eternal Light — also known as OLA for its Latin name, Ordo Lucis Aeternae — around age 18. The OLA has been around since the late days of the Roman Empire, or so people have said; it is widely believed that the OLA originated in Rome, most likely under the direction of Emperor Romulus Augustulus, as a last-ditch effort to fortify the Western Roman Empire's power. It didn't work. Though the Empire fell, the Order did not. The group slowly branched out into neighboring countries, each of which eventually formed its own "official" chapter. They're not a particularly large group as many other militias outnumber them by thousands, but they are well-known. There are only about 8,000 members across the whole of Europe; Fletcher is the leader (read: General) of the Scottish branch, which currently has 467 members.

Fletcher has spent the majority of his life with the Order and has left Scotland only a dozen times, usually for Order-related business. His loyalty to the militia and strong leadership have proven to the other branches' leaders that he would make a very good Marshal, and he is slated to be sworn in as such in one month's time. The other Generals are currently looking to him to keep the impending civil war between angels and demons at bay; it's a conflict that has been centuries in the making and everyone is surprised it didn't happen sooner. In Fletcher's world, angels aren't the only ones with Callings, nor are they the only ones with the instinct to kill. They have demon counterparts—called Rakshasa worldwide, but locally known as Fomori—who want to destroy them just as much as they want to destroy the demons. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if Archangels weren't inclined to kill every type of demon they come across and if the Fomori weren't inclined to kill every type of angel they come across. This has led to the loss of many, many innocent lives.

A great effort was made around 1970 to bring some semblance of peace to Scotland in the form of a treaty originally drafted by Parliament. It ultimately failed—not for lack of cooperation between the parties, but for political reasons; it was around that time that the Scots found themselves surprisingly united (including angels and demons) for the common cause of rebelling against the UK's authority over their country. A second treaty was drafted in 2000 by then First Minister Donald Dewar, the political leader of Scotland as instituted by the Scotland Act 1998. The treaty was successful and led to nearly 40 years of almost-peace. The number of killings sharply declined and the Order became more of a coddling police force than a militia, trying to keep the nation safe through keeping it calm. This, of course, didn't last.

The treaty fell apart in 2036 when a rogue group of Archangels unaffiliated with the Order raided the warehouse of a company run mostly by demons. Three were killed, their bodies hanged from the ceiling, and nearly two hundred thousand pounds' worth of goods were stolen. This led to an uprising that ended nearly one hundred deaths and would have led to a much bigger conflict if the Order hadn't gotten involved. They issued their own treaty of sorts, which wasn't so much a treaty as it was a great big "if you keep this up, it'll mean war" threat. Both sides agreed they didn't want a war, though, so things kind of worked out. For a while.

In 2087, much to the shock of the entire nation, the then-in-power Scottish National Party proposed a bill that would grant the Order far more power than they needed; thanks to a renewal in religious faith a few years earlier with the election of a Scottish Moderator of the General Assembly, the leader of the Presbyterian church, many Scots thought putting their protection in the hands of angels was a brilliant idea, and so the Order was incorporated into the government as the Office of Civil Defence.

The demons were, in a word, pissed.

In fact, they're still pissed. Even more so, actually. Nearly twenty years later, they find themselves ready to rebel against the whole of Scotland for two decades' worth of oppression and racism and—much to the horror of the Order—they have humans on their side. Consequently, humans are stepping up in support of the angels as well, and nearly every militia in Scotland, human and otherwise, finds themselves taking up arms and waiting for the first shot to go off.

Fletcher doesn't want to deal with any of it.

Conveniently, this is where the Wood comes in.

First Person Sample: WHAT THE SHIT IS THIS?

I mean, I can see what it is. I have eyes. That work.

I'm not dead, am I? I can't be. I'd know, wouldn't I? This must be a bad trip. Someone sold me some bad grass.

SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME THAT'S WHAT THIS IS. I'll give you money if you do. Shiny money made of paper! [He fishes a bill out of his wallet, then pauses for a moment to stare at it, considering.] Or is that not worth anything here? I swear to God, if I have to start bartering with shells, someone's gonna get kicked in the head.

Shells. What the fuck.

Prose Sample: Bam!

Special Notes: Fletcher's world is largely the same as ours, save for the fact that there are angels and demons and supernatural humans. Though he is from a world circa 2100 AD, technology hasn't progressed as quickly as we all imagined it would. Life is sweet and full of shiny stuff, but he does not have a hovercraft.
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Fletcher Hadley

November 2012

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