if anything, jack wishes there were more people like rory in this school. quiet, unassuming and keeping to themselves. he can enjoy this coffee with her, which is more than he can say for most people.ย
โ garbage, โ he repeats as he fills out the crossword.ย โย just in the mornings. something to do.ย โ and a great way to deter people. โ you? โ
โyeah, i love them. i guess iโm kind of a word nerd genetically,โ she said, given how much her mother cared about language.ย โbut it was ilse, my nanny, who really got me into them. i guess for awhile it was the only thing she let me do in english. she even made me watch the german version of jeopardy,โ rory laughed.ย ย โwhich isnโt great. no offense to frank elstner, but i prefer alex trebec.โ
londonโs eyebrows raise without a moment of hesitation.ย โFREAKY?โ she shakes her head in disagreement.ย โif your mom is like olivia, iโm actually JEALOUS.โ and thereโs a little truth behind that. though she LOVES her mother, she isnโt anything like the women sheโs seen, looked up to, in the spy world. a southern belle who didnโt know spyโs EXISTED until meeting her father, a true driverโs ed legend ( but also a raging dick at times ) ..ย โa tv mom is like, slang if you will, itโs just a way of showing love to a strong female lead of your favorite movie or tv show that you ADMIRE or LOOK UP to in a mother figure sort of wayโฆyou can also have a tv dad, mine is DR. PHIL.โ
rory couldnโt help but laugh - girls there who knew her mother often were jealous, both when she had been a student and the ones who were students now.ย โhave you ever seen a case that olivia benson couldnโt solve? try to imagine all the things i wish my mother hadnโt easily figured out about me.โ granted, there were some good things about having a world-class spy as your mother, but only being able to lie to her every one in five times wasnโt one of them. she nodded, trying to imagine dr. phil as a father type.ย โi think i know what you mean. mine would be keith mars.โ she laughed and shook her head.ย โi didnโt even realize until after i said it, but heโs a detective, too. maybe i should cut my mom a little slack.โ
Thereโs enough tension in the room to suffocate a fish underwater. Jack narrows his eyes as they land on the person standing before him and lets out a small sigh of frustration. He takes a moment to think to himself before settling on a conclusion.ย
โYouโre fine,โ he says, gesturing towards the seat opposite him, encouraging them to sit down despite himself. Turning the newspaper around, he points the pen to a particular empty row in his daily crossword.ย โIโm stuck.โ
rory inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. she happened to be excellent at crossword puzzles thanks to nanny number four, and helping him solve one would delay her having to participate in an actual conversation.
โgarbage. soppel with seven letters is garbage,โ she noted, smiling.ย โdo you do a lot of crosswords?โ he didnโt seem like the typical puzzle type, but then again, rory didnโt really know what type he was.
itโs nice to know someone competentย is playing his role on the gallagher side of things. and flattering, if heโs being honest. though a legacy himself, heโs not an elitistย about it or anything. he simply feels that people like him, like rory, have a different sense of what it means to know what your future will hold even as a child, to have to grow into someone elseโs shadow. he sees her turning a corner in the hallway, and catches up to her in a few large strides of his long legs (because a light jog would be undignified).ย โrory!โ he greets, walking alongside her and matching her pace.ย โwhere are we off to, hm? student to discipline? or inspire? canโt quite say which iโd prefer right now.โ in a way, thereโs some competition over student, whether they choose rory or hal as their mentor, but itโs all in good fun. / @aurcrabcrealisโ
hearing her name, rory turned her head, smiling as she sees hal walk towards her. the concept of working with blackthorne alumnus had seemed daunting at first, but having him in the same role she was in had made it easier to see them all as more human.ย โas entertaining as iโm sure it would be to watch you discipline a student, i was sort of hoping i would have an inspire kind of day. iโm just not sure how.โ she lowered her voice and looked around to make sure no students could hear.ย โiโm not actually going anywhere. the secret to aimless wandering is to look ahead with purpose.โ maybe it wasnโt wise to admit that, but it came out faster than she could think of a lie about where she was going.ย โwhere are you off to?โ
โolivia benson is my TV MOM.โ a grin right as she peels her icy blue eyes away from her iphone screen. has she been binge watching SVU all day? absolutely. it was the ONE show she managed to keep up with.ย โtell me you LOVE her as much as I do?โ
โi do love her,โ rory concurs, smiling wistfully. โbut honestly, she reminds me so much of my real life mom that itโs a little freaky.โ she wasnโt sure if she should ask her question - she didnโt want to age herself too much - but she also wasnโt sure if they were talking about the same thing.ย โactually, what is a tv mom?โ
though rory was deeply concerned about the safety of the georgetown students, she wasnโt concerned about giving up any information that would threaten the safety of gallagher. most of her job was to act like a normal person who was in no way affiliated with espionage. sometimes even she forgot that she was a spy. rory laughed at the girlโs remarks - she had a point.ย โitโs an old school, i think itโs just a part of tradition. when i was here the uniforms werenโt quite as casual. iโd like to think that wasnโt that long ago,โ she mused.ย โa lot of people have a uniform or dress code at work. if you think of it like that i donโt think it seems as strange. and it saved me from four years of girls wearing nothing but velour sweatsuits and ugg boots,โ rory added with a chuckle. looking back, the fashion of her youth was disturbing at best.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย other libraries would have said not to put back the books , but at gallagher it was almost assumed that you would.ย the librarians would give benji a bad look whenever he came out with an armful so he felt the need to put them back from where he got them.ย not too many people were concerned with reading , it worked out in his favor when he decided to attempt to deciipher the dewey decimal system.ย why couldnโt it be alphabetical ?ย decimals were the bane of everyoneโs existence and benji was no different.ย ย โ who decided the dewey decimal system was the way to go ,ย โ he muttered to himself as he struggled to put a book back into his shelf โ maybe it was because it didnโt go there.ย blue eyes caught glimpse of someone staring ,ย โ nothing to see here โ just putting a book back.ย โ
โmelvin dewey?โ rory suggested.ย โalthough admittedly i donโt know why he decided to organize his library this way. but itโs really not that bad. you just have to remember the ten main groups, and then you know which section of the library to go to. iโm looking for baudelaire, which would fall under literature, and thatโs in the 800s. french literature is the 840s, and french poetry is 841. but even if i just knew to look in the 800s, i would have to look through one tenth of the library instead of the whole thing.โ it suddenly occurred to rory that the boy was asking a rhetorical question, and her long winded response could be unclear even to someone who actually wanted an answer. being a teacher was still totally foreign to her.ย โwhat book did you read?โ
โ LEIGHTON MEESTER, 33, CIS FEMALE, SHE/HER โก welcome back to gallagher academy, AURORA โRORYโ RIVERS! originally hailing from GALLAGHER, this alum specializes in LINGUISTICS, CULTURE, & ASSIMILATION. when i see them walking around in the halls, i usually see a flash of notes scribbled in the margins of old books, designer dresses with the tags still on, dancing with a handsome stranger, a faint smell of roses and cedar, not recognizing your own reflection.ย itโs the (gemini)โs birthday on 5/26/1986, and when they were still in school their most requested dish was LEMON BARS from the schoolโs chefs. hopefully their presence can help ease the minds of gallagher students.
@gallagherintroโ
(hit me up here or on discord @ย scoops troops#4933 to plot!!)
auroraโs mother, madeleine merchant, came from a long line of respected spies. she went to gallagher in the late 70s/early 80s and studied seduction & flirtation and linguistics, culture, & assimilation. she was known as a master or disguise, though madeleine always fit best in high society, the world in which she had grown up. auroraโs father, richard rivers, was also a spy, but came from a much more modest background and his occupation was kept secret from the rest of his family. richard went missing during a missionย when madeleine was eight months pregnant with rory. he hasnโt been seen since april 29, 1986, so if you see him, let me know.
becoming a mother didnโt change madeleines lifestyle. she had the means to supply rory with the finest nannies and tutors that money could buy. (madeleine had roryโs nannies replaced every three years, which was what she believed to be the appropriate amount of time for rory to become proficient in their native language. though she will say english is her first language, she was learning french at the same time. by the time she graduated from her spy prep high school, rory was fluent in english, french, spanish, italian, german, japanese, and cantonese. itโs excessive).ย
rory was a quiet child, especially in contrast to her motherโs outgoing personality. she was always hiding behind her motherโs skirt at cocktail parties and sneaking away to read. she spent a lot of time with her nannies, and learning how to cook or play different instruments. she lacked her motherโs self-confidence, but she did pick up other things from her mother, most importantly the ability to fake it and be whoever she needed to be in any given situation. she watched her mother as she went back and forth between different personas at ease, and over time rory became a natural at putting on masks and transforming herself as if she were playing a character. there was never a debate about whether or not she would be a spy, but if sheโd had the chance to try out a different career, rory would have made an incredible actress. such a good actress that she found herself forgetting which traits were really her own and which were part of an assumed personality.
her real personality is quiet and unassuming. sheโs always been a wallflower and would rather not speak if she doesnโt feel she has something important to say. sheโs very warm and sweet and honestly just pretty soft. but often times in social situations sheโll put on a more bubbly persona, because that seems to make people more comfortable.
rory studied the same things as her mom at gallagher:ย seduction & flirtation and linguistics, culture, & assimilation. she basically studied lca throughout her entire childhood and itโs an area in which she thrived. seduction & flirtation was somewhat more difficult for her because of how shy and self-conscious she can feel, but itโs something she became good at when sheโs pretending to be someone else.ย
after gallagher, rory did a lot of traveling and has worked for a handful of different agencies. sheโs not of the same caliber as her mother, but she has built up a reputation as a competent field op with an uncanny ability to blend in when undercover. her missions are most often recon. very few people in the spy world know how shy she naturally is. they do know that madeleine merchant is her mother and that has definitely given her a leg up. yay for nepotism.ย
when she was contacted about coming back to gallagher, rory jumped at the opportunity. she loved her time there and hopes she can have a positive impact on the current studentsโ experiences.ย
other stuff about rory: sheโs an amazing baker. she can play the harp, violin, and piano, but really you should hear her sing. sheโs ambidextrous but prefers her left hand. her favorite color is purple. she reads in 90% of her free time. she has died her hair so many colors its a miracle she has any left. sheโs an avid journaler. sheโs a terrible driver. she definitely has some abandonment issues relating to her fatherโs disappearance, her motherโs frequent work trips, and her nannies being replaced even though she totally loved them. she doesnโt have a great relationship with her mom, but they do love each other.ย
i feel like iโm missing so much but i was supposed to go to bed an hour and a half ago
wanted connections!!
students:
mentees, kids majoring in lca who she can help
students who are super confident and intimidate her even though sheโs a grown ass woman
students who are shy and remind her of herself so she wants to help them but theyโre both shy so itโs hard
students from spy families who have heard of her mom and are disappointed that she isnโt more like her
alumni:
people from her time at gallagher!! friends, roommates, rivals, anything (she was there 2005-2009)
people from spy families who sheโs known her whole life (idk where she grew up so i might just wait to make that fit a connection). but she also travelled a lot so the where doesnโt necessarily matter. maybe they get along, maybe they donโt!
people sheโs worked with or come across while working. could be friends, could be someone she just canโt manage to get along with, could be someone who she met while they were working at rival agencies
gimme that angst!! exes, something where they were never a thing but they were something ya know, a flirtationship, they both think the other isnโt interested so they never make a move, opposites attract, enemies to lovers, slow burn, all of the above
and really anything, that is just all my brain can come up with because itโs 3 am what the fuck am i doing
