Birdie still wakes up at seven every day, reminiscent of her high-school days. She gets dressed and packs her bag for the day before leaving the staff apartments on campus and heading over to the western wing of the school.
At 7:30, she eats a muffin or an orange and then gets to work, which includes:
Organizing the returned books back to their proper locations
Working the checkout and information desk
Delivering requested books to professors and instructors in the other wings
Setting up new displays
Filling out book order forms for texts that the library doesn’t have, so they can get them through a magical inter-library loan system of sorts from other informational/archival locations around the world
She usually goes out to the gardens to eat her lunch, which she either grabs from the cafeteria or brings with her from her room.
In the afternoon, she does much of the same, though if she gets everything done she tends to just read until she can clock out at 5 o’clock. The library is still open in the evenings, but she typically doesn’t work those shifts.
It’s not physically demanding work, but she does want to do a good job, so she pays close attention to every one of her tasks. And while the work itself isn’t super social, she gets to talk to a lot of people throughout the course of a work day so it’s not lonesome.
a deep startle left her as the other approached. she hadn’t seen them coming, hadn’t heard them come in, now she was face to face with them. perhaps it was ella’s own obliviousness that was the cause. either way, she still felt her heart pulsing from the ache of the surprise. “how long have you been there?” she asked, bit breathless.
“I was walking past, that’s all,” Birdie replied in an attempt to appease the other blonde-haired young woman. “I didn’t-- I didn’t see a thing, or hear a thing, I was only... walking,” she repeated. “So if you’re worried about that, um, you don’t need to be. I promise.”
Rosalie raised her eyebrow in a delicate arch as she heard the other's question, and stomped out her cigarette.
" Okay, so, if you want to do this friendship thing, you can't just ask me questions like that." Rosalie gestured around her room dramatically as she said it.
" You however, can smoke with me. " Rosalie got up from her chair and offered them an unlit cigarette.
Birdie wasn’t even sure how she got here, really. It was a whirlwind of a conversation and then an invitation that led to spending more time with the other girl, who was nearly the same age as herself even though she was a student, not staff. Birdie’s eyes widened, unsure of herself. “I-- I didn’t mean to offend you or anything,” she replied.
When the other girl offered an unlit cigarette, Birdie reached out with a trembling hand to take it, used to following orders, before she realized what was in her hand and that she really didn’t want to smoke it. “Oh. Um. I appreciate the offer but--” She held it out at a distance for the other girl to take back. “Is it alright if I don’t?”
Birdie peered down the hallway tentatively, with a small stack of books clutched to her chest. “Office, office, office,” she repeatedly to herself quietly as she searched the hall for signs that might point her in the right direction. A couple of months here was not long enough for her to memorize where everything was. Not even close. And she didn’t want to bother anyone busy with their own business, but she couldn’t wander the halls forever... She bit her lip, then spoke aloud, her voice soft. “Could anyone point me towards the, uh, necromancy office?” The idea of real-life necromancy was a bit frightening, true, but offices weren’t anything to be afraid of. Or at least she hoped.
( elle fanning, 20, she/her ) class is in session for BIRDIE TAYLOR. according to the files, they’re a FAIRY currently working as an ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN and they’ve been at the academy for SIX MONTHS. the psychological report says they are TIMID and NAIVE, but they’re also SWEET and EARNEST. we wish them good luck in the new school year.
Hi, I’m Cat, and this is a lil’ introduction to my dear Birdie.
Birdie was a changeling; she was switched at birth with a human baby, though she didn’t know it. This is partly due to a magical glamor hiding her wings and other fairy-elements, parts of which are still in place today. She accidentally manifested light magic when she was eight, and her non-biological parents, the Taylors, thought she was a demon and tried to have her exorcized.
Spoiler alert: it didn’t do a darn thing, and she was still as much a fairy as ever, though she didn’t know it. But the experience essentially brainwashed her into believing that she was a normal human and that anything strange she might notice or be able to do was wrong and evil-- so if any magical episodes did happen, she kept them to herself, for fear that her parents would be disappointed and/or try to lock her away.
She continued through primary school and high school like any other human, keeping all odd occurrences under wraps, worrying about them all the while. Her school was a private religious one, and between that and her strict parents, she very much kept to the rules and kept to herself. She never had many close friends for fear that they would sense something was off about her.
It’s only when she went off to college at 18 that she met someone on campus who was a fellow fairy and could tell what Birdie truly was. They took her to Avalon for the first time and explained that she’s not insane, and she’s not demonic-- she’s simply a fairy.
It was somewhat of a relief but also incredibly confusing. As a result, she had a tiny existential crisis and dropped out of college. A couple fairies she’d met suggested she try to find a position working somewhere where she can get used to the idea of being supernatural, which is how she ended up at Arcanas. She’s still too terrified to contact her parents about what she discovered, because she know she’s no good at lying, so to them, she just dropped off the face of the planet.
Birdie is quite skittish and shy, and she has a slight stutter when she gets nervous. However, she’s genuinely sweet at heart and really wants to find out more about the supernatural world so she can feel more comfortable in her skin for once in her life, despite the fact that the whole idea of magic still scares her a bit.
A couple of possible connections are listed below:
Others who live in the staff dorms and can take Birdie under their wing
Someone her age who needs a good, empathetic listener
Fairies who can teach her about being a fairy
Students who take advantage of her staff status to get into places they shouldn’t, since she’s pretty wide-eyed and easily manipulated
Students who befriend her despite the fact that she’s not a student
Someone she can have a crush on (of any gender-- she’s bisexual though very in the closet)
Anyone who influences her to be more bold or daring or social
Anyone who stops by the library a lot, either for books or for chats
????
I don’t use discord, but if anyone wants to plot through tumblr, I’ll be on mobile off and on throughout the day, so shoot me a tumblr dm xx
