Esra Harlow

Sherlocktopus

Player Character

E, Es, Harlow, Harley

Woman (she/her)

25

Pear shaped; athletic

156lbs

5'10"

Olive

Auburn

Wavy, worn to one side.

yellow-green

freckles, moles, a "beauty mark" below her mouth on the left side

Human

Passionate, stubborn, argumentative. Loving. Alluring; Esra has a big personality and tends to fill a room just by being in it.

Achievement; Challenge. Nothing could be more important than being the best at whatever it is she does--bonus points if she has someone to compete with.

Failure; Incompetence; the Ocean

Esra can be abrasive and dismissive. She is stubborn and domineering and that can and does ruffle the feathers of those around her. She doesn’t seem to notice or care. Beneath her icy, confident exterior, she is filled with turbulent emotions. She drinks nothing but beer, wine, & liquor and often replaces meals with coffee. She smokes “for her nerves” but its really just a habit at this point.

ENTJ-T

July 21st, Cancer-Leo Cusp

BA

Esra is the adopted child of an older lesbian couple who took her into their home after the age of 10. Damaged by a large part of her childhood spent in the system, Esra was quite the fire-brand. It took the love and patience of her moms to calm the hurt and anger inside of her.

Esra was in the system from the day she was born, bumped between foster parents and group homes until she was ten. It was a hectic and chaotic time for her. She has few memories from back then, but nearly all of them are terrifying. Her wrists were both broken when she was an infant, she "fell" down the stairs when she was 3. She had bruises so often they might have been permanent. Her nose was broken at 5 by an older boy in the group home because she bit him when he tried to touch her body.

Routines are great for kids, especially damaged ones, and Esra in particular thrived. Dance practice. Tae kwon do. Private school. By the time she was 12 her moms took her out of all dance classes--their gangly analytical daughter just wasn't enjoying the movements of ballet--but she threw herself harder into training and studying and traded ballet shoes for cleats. From a young age she was a fierce competitor and a force to be reckoned with. Esra was determined to prove she was worthy of love.

Esra made few friends growing up. Other kids seemed too simple to her or inevitably disappointed her and her high expectations. Children should never feel the burden of being too mature for their own age and the loneliness that comes with it. Her edges were too sharp, her words were too well-picked, behind her eyes, the windows were shuttered. Other children who had always had safe and happy lives could not relate to her. By the time they caught up, she was used to being alone and convinced herself she preferred it that way. Besides, no friends meant no distractions.

No distractions meant virtually no dating either.

She had a few suitors--naturally, as a pretty and mature girl. But usually they were much older and they took advantage of her inner loneliness and left her when the novelty wore off. After allowing her heart to be broken too often, she turned back to her studies and didn't waiver all through college.

Esra majored in Humanities and Communications and became an Event Coordinator, which is a very lucrative profession in SoCal. She found herself busy, often, which she preferred. It distracted her from being lonely and from having to acknowledge the growing distance between her and her mothers. Planning the weddings and parties of celebrities and the famously wealthy took up all of her time. She had a dedicated brunch group to gossip with and her choice of rotating partners. Things could not have been going better for her.

She would lie awake at night and she would absolutely not think of how empty she felt in the shadows, listening to the sounds of the city below her fashionable LA loft. She would not feel guilty that she hadn't called her moms to check up on them. She would not have another conversation about how she was not going to marry or have children. She would not endure the pain of her mom, Rachel, describing chemo or Eileen telling her how well Rachel was doing this time. Rachel had been battling breast cancer on and off for years. And Esra couldn't bear to hear if they found the cancer was spreading. So she didn't call.

Long after Rachel died, the last embers of autumn drifting around Esra and Eileen as they watched her lowered down, down, down to her eternal rest; still after Eileen succumbed to an aneurysm, no doubt brought on from the combination of hormone therapy and the ever present cigarette; some time after her already steely heart had grown thorns--Esra found her purpose in a cramped antique store that seemed to have appeared overnight and disappeared just as quickly. A rather costume-y looking ring called to her and whispered to her blood. It was made for her.

Apprentice.

Scarlet red

White tuna sashimi

replites

5

7

4

9

8

5

5

3

4

Lune - The Pearl of the Moon artefact helps her focus her mind and clear her thoughts so she can use her powers and absorb moonlight.

Esra’s magic is a gift from the moon. She can recharge the magic in her blood by bathing under the light of the moon, which works best when the moon is full.

“Walls have ears. Doors have eyes. Trees have voices. Beasts tell lies. Beware the rain. Beware the snow. Beware the man you think you know.” -- Catherine Fisher, Songs of Sapphique