Originally hailing from Edinburgh, Olivia has been living for the last four years in Redwood Hollow with her father, Hiram, a toymaker and owner of a tiny souvenir shop.
Hiram was the victim of a kidnapping when his daughter was only eight years old, so ever since that awful event he has been rather overprotective of his daughter.
The Flavershams moved to this quiet little American town searching for peace, and for Olivia to study Criminology at Redwood College, on the recommendation of Dr Dawson, a friend of the family.
Olivia is extremely kind and friendly to all, though she is also quite excitable, slightly naïve, and just a little bit bratty, as a result from her sheltered upbringing.
With the wave of poisonings and thefts happening around town, despite her inexperience, Olivia is very much eager to help with the investigation and bring justice to her new home.
Wanted Connections
Friends: As the warm and sociable person she is, Olivia has a bunch of friends already whom she trusts and loves. She’s always excited to establish new relationships though –the more the merrier!
Professors: In order to be an excellent investigator, one needs a little guidance. Olivia is definitely someone happy to learn, if that helps her getting closer to her dream of becoming a Criminologist.
Partners: There's a mystery in town, and Olivia is determined to be the one to solve it. To be able to do that, however, she needs other investigators –let's say, the Watson to her Holmes.
Plot Ideas
Knitting Buddy: Apart from studying, reading and writing, Olivia's next favorite pastime is knitting, and would love for your character to join her with possible patterns and ideas. Yes, it's kind of a typical granny hobby –so that means it's plenty tried and tested!
Reluctant Associates: Olivia prides herself on being a very amiable girl: that doesn't mean that everyone has to love her. Maybe your character has to share a class with her, or is a fellow volunteer at the RHPD, and isn't exactly overjoyed at having to withstand her antics all day long.
Mysterious Leads: Your character might be aware of Olivia's naiveté and inexperience, and so decides to make her a harmless (or not) prank, handing her clues leading to a dead end. Or perhaps they want to make sure Olivia stays out of their way...
I would love for Dr Dawson and Basil Baker to join! Apart from the fact that it would be awesome to have them around, I feel like either one of them could be great mentors for Olivia.
Penny's bio mentions her as a potential friend of Olivia; their shared experiences with kidnappings and parental disappearance may bring each other some mutual understanding and common ground to establish a strong friendship.
Sunset. Olivia raised her eyes and watched it over the humble skyline of Redwood Hollow. She didn't have the time to watch it shifting colors... But she could stay one more day in town. Surely, she could. She could watch the sky change and turn to night, and then get home, and rest, and then next day...
No, it had to be today. If she kept waiting until she was ready, she might never leave.
Olivia took out the plane ticket from the inner pocket of her jacket. Flight to Edinburgh, 11:20pm. If the bus taking her to the airport arrived on time, then everything would go smoothly, and she would be flying away from the US that same night and arriving to Europe by tomorrow morning.
This was a huge opportunity for her. An old friend of her parents was taking a holiday, and she offered Olivia her apartment for her to stay in for a few months. It coincided with a criminology scholarship she had applied for and thought she'd never get, but somehow managed to win. All she needed now was to find a job there in the city, and she'd be set for a new chapter of her life.
Because this is what she wanted. To venture out into the world on her own. Be her own person.
It wouldn't be easy, of course. She had never lived on her own before. Even less away from the place she had grown to call home. Her maternal grandparents would visit her in a week, so she wouldn't be completely alone; but that meant a whole week of managing by herself, doing everything alone. If she could have only found a scholarship in Invercargill, where the grandparents lived, where her old friends were... But that wouldn't have been the same. It wouldn't have posed nearly as big a challenge. It wouldn't have been the 'call to adventure' Olivia thought she needed.
She hoped that, while she was away, the mystery of the poisonings and all-around strange happenings in Redwood would be solved. She had fantasized about taking part of the investigation and helping find the culprits, but as things became more and more serious and more people ended up at the hospital, both she and her father had been wondering if the nice little town they had moved into was as safe as they had thought when they first arrived. Really, if there actually was anywhere completely safe for them to be.
"Remember, you can call me whenever you need to," Hiram told her. "Always keep your phone charged. And make sure you got the city map downloaded, in case you have no signal--"
"And have the physical map at hand, too," Olivia nodded, rolling her eyes with a chuckle. "I know, dad."
Hiram nodded. Of course she knew. His daughter was a very smart young woman, and she knew the risks. But she had ambition, too, and that would keep her going in a big mean city, with danger lurking everywhere, especially for someone as inexperienced as Olivia was.
Is this a good idea?, she asked herself for the hundredth time. Maybe she needed to take another year before making this sort of decision. She gulped. Maybe a year was the difference between success and utter failure.
"Are you okay, dear?" her father asked her.
"Yes, yes..." she said, shaking those doubts off her mind. "I'm just hoping there's no crying, shrieking baby at the plane."
"It's just a seven-hour flight," he shrugged with a wink. "You'll spend them sleeping like a log."
"Yes... I know."
Seven hours. It wasn't that much, but she already knew it would feel like ages. Hiram nodded again. He started wringing his hands, which he always said he did when he was cold, but obviously only did when he was truly nervous. Which had been always, ever since the choice had been made.
"Don't worry... I'll be back for Christmas," Olivia said with a smile.
Hiram nodded once more, and took a deep breath to hold back tears.
The bus arrived. It stopped right by them, and the doors opened, and the choice had to be made. But there was not much of a choice, right? The plane ticket had already been purchased. Plans were already made. A life was already mapped out. She had spent the last week making her bucket-list of things to do at Edinburgh, the route to revisit all the spots of her early childhood, to see if they were as lovely as she remembered. Hiram had told her that she shouldn't get her hopes too high, that places and memories changed as years went by. Still, Olivia wanted to see for herself.
She turned to face her father. He raised his eyebrows, as if saying, Well, ready? Olivia smiled and cocked her head, as if asking, Sure I am, are you? Hiram laughed. It was not a real proper response, but it would have to do.
"Be careful. Alright?"
"I'm always careful."
It had been a rather chilly day, holding out to the rare remains of last winter. Olivia's jacket would seem a little excessive, but she usually ran cold, and having it on her meant more space in her luggage for books. Besides, she hadn't heard the best of Edinburgh's climate, even in spring. Hiram wrapped Olivia's scarf around her neck, making sure it was nice and tight but not too tight. Olivia smiled at him a little wider, wishing she knew what to say to calm him down. Instead of wasting time finding the words, she just went ahead and hugged him.
"I'll miss you."
"I'll miss you more."
The doors hissed as they closed, and Olivia had to hurry and knock on it to ask the bus driver to open it back again. Hiram chuckled. Olivia shot him a little embarrassed grin and climbed aboard, dragging her luggage behind her. Hiram's first impulse was to go ahead and give her a hand, but he knew what she would say. I can do it. And she could. She could, and she was doing it. She had grown up so much.
The bus was quite empty, so it was no trouble finding a nice spot by the window to watch the scenery go by. She sat down and put on her seatbelt. And, taking a moment to take a breath, she looked up through the window to her father, who was still watching, wringing his hands.
Olivia waved at him, and he waved back with a big bright smile. She hoped the smile meant he was truly happy for her, as he kept repeating. He surely was --at least a little, but was he happy enough to understand this had to be done? Olivia pursed her lips, still trying to smile.
The bus started. Olivia was just a little startled when it began moving, but managed to hide it, more or less. She waved and waved, shifting between pure joy and deep anxiety, eyes fixed on her father, making sure to seem as excited and optimistic as she could, so he could have as few apprehensions as possible. The bus picked up speed and soon it moved away, away from the station, farther down the road, and Olivia couldn't see her father anymore, and had to trust that she wouldn't miss him too much, indeed.
Hiram kept waving for a few seconds more, even after Olivia was out of sight.
Rachel smiled unwaveringly, despite Olivia's apparently odd reasoning behind wanting or not wanting to attend a (or the) wedding. "I heard most people go to weddings for the party and the cake," she replied. Rachel's opinion was that this was all very exciting, and there was no way she was turning down such an important and special invitation.
"I bet your first prettiest dress is amazing then!" Olivia's next question didn't strike Rachel as odd until she started to answer it. "Yes! Well, not both parts, I guess. I know James. And my boyfriend Toulouse is friends with Tina, so technically if you smoosh us both together then yes, I know the couple!"
"Don't you?" she asked. It occurred to her that it might be a weird question to ask guests at a wedding. Wasn't everyone here because the couple had invited them? Was it normal to go to the wedding of people you didn't know..? She thought her way around it quickly. "I mean, you could totally be here as a plus one, so like... I guess maybe it isn't a weird... Anyway!"
Olivia chuckled. "Those are pretty good reasons, really." Was wedding cake in any way different from regular cake? She imagined it would be richer and fancier. She hadn't given it much thought before, but now the idea of trying out fancy cake was really tempting.
"I, uh..." In reality, Olivia had not been invited. She knew a couple people from class that had stated they were planning to sneak in: after all, they expected the wedding of the local hotel owner to be quite a time to remember. Once the thought had burrowed into her brain, Olivia couldn't shake it off. After all, how hard could it be, to slip by among all the guests? And it wasn't like she would be staying long --just enough to see what it was all about. And she was so often not noticed, able to pass by undetected. She hadn't expected someone to actually take notice of her, or to wonder if she even belonged at the party.
"... Yes, I'm a plus-one," she finally answered, hoping her lie wasn't too obvious.
"Oh my gosh, first time together! That's so fun!" Rachel sang, perhaps too loudly for the quiet and calm atmosphere. She couldn't help herself!
Rachel glanced down at her outfit, bashfully dusting it off as if there was suddenly something wrong with it. "Thanks, uh-- My mom actually helped me pick it. She's been to a few weddings. I wouldn't have had a clue!" She beamed then at Olivia. "Oh, no! I think you're dressed the exact right amount! I don't really know if you can be underdressed for a wedding, but I think maybe you could be overdressed."
Olivia giggled. "Yeah, I... I don't know, I've never been very interested in weddings, but I was super curious to go to one at least to see what all the fuss is about, and..." She stopped herself. In all honesty, she really did not care much about weddings at all, or at least what they represented. She was happy for the lucky couple, of course, that went without saying --it was more like she felt it was often more for show than anything else. But she had a feeling that a wedding could be exciting, that something may happen, and if this couple (between the man who owned the Neverland Hotel and... some woman, she supposed? Olivia should have done more research before coming) wanted to use the opportunity to share their joy with a big party, hey, more power to them.
"Well, thanks! It's the second prettiest dress I have, so I should hope it's good enough." Thankfully it was getting warm enough to wear it, so she was happy to be able to take it out of her closet for once. "Do you, um, know the couple?" she asked the young woman, lowering her voice.
"Neither have I!" Olivia admitted. It was indeed quite exciting, and even if she wasn't exactly big on parties, that didn't mean she didn't enjoy one every once in a while. Especially after the latest weeks full of exams, it was a much welcome time for unwinding and allowing herself to have a little fun.
"I really love your outfit, by the way. Everyone just looks so fancy, makes me wonder if I'm not a bit underdressed." She knew she had to dress at least somewhat formally, and she had a couple outfits for such occasions; but it was rather drab and dull compared to the brighter, more colorful looks other attendants had put together. Still, from what little she knew about weddings, Olivia did know that it was important never to overshadow the bride, or the bridesmaids. In that respect, she was sure she would do just fine.
"miss flaversham" he greeted with a nod of his head. he had seen olivia around town often enough and she was always a well mannered young woman, he always took the time to have a conversation with her if that was what she wanted. "i'm good thanks, tired from work but nothing a bit of food won't fix. how are you doing?"
"Ah, I'm doing good as well," she said, fidgeting with her nails. "Well, you're definitely in the right place if food's what you need." Olivia gave a quick look around, at the tables with interesting little samples and drinks. "Mr Bug's business is looking like it'll be pretty popular, doesn't it?"
Lilo was an oversized overcoat, round rimmed hat and there was a professionally drawn mustache on her face. She was both in disguise and dressed as an old timey detective. Two birds, one stone, right? And here was Liv, the room's most adorable mouse. Lilo was lost in thought, imagining their weird but instant cult classic TV show together... Just a detective out of time and a mouse.
"Huh?" she asked, returning to reality. "Oh! Right, yes. It is really good! I went through an extended jazz phase in Freshmen year. I also thought I could play the saxophone but that just wasn't true." She paused, thinking back on what might have been before grinning.
When Olivia saw Lilo, she took a moment before actually recognizing her. "Wow, that's... That's a really good disguise! I almost didn't realize it was you."
Olivia chuckled. She didn't really have 'phases', as far as she could remember: all her obsessions were deeply set in her identity, at least so far. Still, the idea of a jazz phase was pretty funny.
"Um... Sure!" she said with a smile. "Just a heads-up, I don't quite know what I'm doing. I can't promise I won't step on your feet."
Gabriel should have introduced himself first, he realised. He couldn't be seen to be caught off guard and he couldn't slip up. Easy enough, right? "Sorry, I should have said... I'm Gabriel Guzman-," he left out the obligatory 'private investigator'- "I'm an old friend of your father's. I mean, well, it's been ages since we last... And when I last met you, you were much smaller. Younger. My hair was doing another thing entirely too so, uh, no hard feelings if you don't remember."
"Ah... Alright," Olivia said, still somewhat uncertain if to believe him or not. "I... I don't think I remember my father mentioning you, but..." She did have an inkling of knowledge of her father's friends, even though, moving from place to place, it was hard to remember them, or even if they kept in touch.
Olivia giggled quietly. "... Yeah, I think I kind of remember the hair." When was it? Was she still living in Edinburgh, back then? The more time that she looked at him, the more convinced she was that she did know him, or at the very least, his face. "What are you doing here? I mean," she corrected herself so as not to appear rude. "It's quite a coincidence, don't you think?"
Gabriel lowered his voice conspiratorially at her question- "Club soda. I'm staying sharp while I get he lay of the land here. Admittedly, the costumes aren't making that so easy. Never let them know that you have the advantage." He added, tapping the side of his glass. Pausing, he looked at her again. That face...
"I'm dressed as a party pooper, I was never one for playing pretend. At least, not in a long time-" Flaversham. A folder thinner than he'd like, years of investigation and counting. A false hope that she could never know about, not until it had teeth. His face softened then. "Olivia?"
It was true: there was so much to see at Evangeline's, it made sense to want to stay as sober as possible. She nodded, about to take another sip of her drink, but then decided to take it a little slower from now on. "Totally get it," Olivia chuckled. "Though you don't seem like a party pooper to me..."
His mentioning her name, as if he knew her, made her jolt. She stared at the man for a moment, her mind racing as she tried to identify him... And then she did notice a certain sense of having seen him before, something in his face that rang familiar. But where, and when? "... Excuse me, who are you?"
charlotte looked over "i suppose you could say that. personally i just felt like i needed some air. the place is boiling considering all the people inside. i'm glad ray got a great turnout for this place. he deserves it after all the work he's poured into it" she explained "how are you enjoying your night?"
"I totally get that," Olivia nodded. "I'm really glad I brought a lightweight costume, all in all. Are you wearing a costume, too?" She couldn't really tell anymore: some people were wearing outfits that seemed completely normal to her, but ended up being references to something. That's what happened when you were so oblivious to modern pop culture.
"I'm doing well!" she said with a big smile. "I'm not used to big parties, but it's really impressive what the owner managed to achieve. I still haven't visited the observatory, though I bet it's just as amazing. I think I'll just wait till it's a bit less crowded," Olivia chuckled.
charlotte was enjoying socialising with people at evangeline's opening. it was nice to catch up with people that she hadn't spoken to in a while, plus she was feeling extra great thanks to the dress she was wearing, points to her seamstress for the perfect fit. gliding through the crows, she said her hellos in passing and settled for stepping outside for some air.
Olivia took a deep breath once she got outside. She had been walking around a few times already, appreciating all the details of the new bar/restaurant. So far she hadn't stepped upstairs to the stargazing section, but she would, soon enough. First she needed to get some air, since all those people gathered together were starting to make her a little dizzy... That and the couple drinks she already had in her.
"It's all just a little bit overwhelming, no?" she chuckled to the woman standing beside her. "Everyone wants to check this place out. And for good reason."
How fitting it was that tonight Redwood's residents adorned costumes. Hiding who they were, hiding what they'd done. The opening was innocent enough, of course but Gabriel Guzman wasn't going to let his guard down now. With an unreadable expression, he held his glass out to them--- "Cheers."
"Cheers," Olivia smiled as she raised her own glass to the unknown man. She had selected a grapefruit drink at the bar, something out of her wheelhouse for once, and when she had a sip she was surprised by how much she liked it. "What are you having?"
As soon as she asked him this, she took a better look at him. Did she know him from somewhere? She didn't think so. Whatever the case, it was hard to tell if he was enjoying himself or not. "Are you dressed as someone from a movie?" Olivia asked him. "I don't think I recognize the costume."
There will be at least three other girls going as a mouse, Olivia thought with a little huff. Especially now that Mean Girls was back to being hugely popular (when hadn't it been, really?). But Olivia wasn't interested in being a 'hot mouse', just a cute, normal mouse. That was different, right?
She had a grey sweater and grey slacks, after all, though she didn't really own pink shoes and gloves, much less a pink tail. And with the exams and essays to write for class, she hadn't had the time to shop for anything for her costume, besides a headband with mouse ears. Not a very good costume (Olivia had no faith in winning that best costume prize any time soon), but at least she had made more of an effort than that one guy at the bar with a blue puffer jacket. What was he meant to be, a blueberry?
"What do you think of the music?" Olivia asked the person closest to her as she watched the live band. "I'm not usually one for jazz, but this is really good!"
"I read A Christmas Carol against my will in High School," Alice lamented. "I can't say I remember a single word of it. I felt it was terribly boring, and the moral was lost on me because I didn't have very much money in High School… Can't say I've read anything by Cummings though." Alice liked to read, but they were incredibly so at it and therefore didn't engage in the hobby as much as they would have liked. The trouble was that Alice's imagination ran wild, and they pictured too much of the book in their head before their mind wandered to a better story. It was always a disappointment when the story in your head did not match what the book had in print.
"They may take you more seriously if you craft a social media take over that they simply cannot ignore. If you go viral on TIKTOK you're basically set for the foreseeable future if the marketing company catch wind and bring you on as a guest." If only it was so simple, but Alice thought it could be.
Alice allowed muscle memory to take over as they walked, turning a left and then an immediate sharp right to take a shortcut round the back of the houses. "I can't decide if it was better or on par with the movie, though I did read it twice. There are some choices between the two that I found very strange. The grandpa isn't telling the story for one, and the first time I read it I really did think that the author had uncovered a real historical artifact."
Olivia huffed. "Yes, I wonder why they give us the most boring stuff in high school? We are supposed to hone our interest in books, not be turned off completely by them." There had been a couple fun choices back in elementary, or at least Olivia remembered it so. High school, not so much. She would have much preferred to prepare essays on her own favorite books.
"Huh. You know I'm not a big TikTok person," she said, a bit bashful. She had creative friends who made truly fun stuff with it, but she really only used it for book recommendations (not that she trusted them too much) and to watch cake-decorating videos. "But maybe I can dress up thirties-style and just, like, talk about Poirot until the cows come home." Olivia wasn't sure many people would care about that. There might be a whole fan community on the app she hadn't found yet, though.
"Hmm... I think the grandpa narration was pretty important, at least in the movie. Like, what he said, and how he said it, kind of colored the boy's interpretation of it, right? Hm, then again, it is true that every reader makes up their own version of a book in their own minds." Their next comment made Olivia gasp. "Oh! That used to happen to me a lot. I read a book and I assume it's real, especially if it's written like someone's testimony. That's what happens when you read too much non-fiction I guess, everything feels like a testimony."
" well . . i suppose it's rather floral-y. it can be an acquired taste, much like lavender sweets. i think it tastes rather sweet too, but not overwhelmingly so. rosewater is quite nice too, on a salad with some peaches. " rose mused as she thought about it. " of course, you're very welcome! i ordered far too many of them, and if i go home with this many sweets my aunts just may lecture me about it yet again. " — and she did not want that. rose did good to hide her stash of sweets from them.
Olivia nodded and kept chewing. It was pretty good, actually. "You're right, it's not too sweet, weirdly enough. It reminds me a bit like honey and a little bit like strawberry, in a sense. Then again it might just be because it's pink, and my brain immediately makes the association." Even if a certain candy didn't really taste like the fruit it was supposed to taste like, Olivia was pretty sure she could still taste it out of sheer habit. "... Is that weird? It sounds kind of weird when I say it out loud," she chuckled.
At the suggestion of a salad with peaches, Olivia scrunched her nose. That certainly sounded strange. Salad with fruit? Nevermind that tomato was a fruit. She had heard some people, especially the French, liked mixing the two flavors, sweet and salty. Kind of like salted caramel, she supposed. She hadn't tried it yet, but it didn't sound very appealing.
"Oh, by the way, I'm Olivia. Olivia Flaversham," she smiled, and offered her hand to shake, once she was done with the macaron. "Do you particularly like rose-favored sweets?"
" oh, you must simply try this! " rose said with a bright smile as she offered them one of the macarons that was on her plate. a few too many were there, truly — but she was a massive fan of sweets. every other day, she could be found at a table in the enchanted rose cafe. the beauty was partial to it's atmosphere, and even more so to it's drinks and baked goods. " it's rose flavored, and i know that sounds terrible, but trust me! "
There were several interesting places in Redwood Hollow to people-watch, but its eateries were often the most fun. Enchanted Rose was one of her favorites. Olivia liked to have some of their wonderful spiced teas (especially now, with fall upon them!) and take a few notes, or pretend to read while paying keen attention on conversations by the table next to hers, or begin to study just to have her mind wander off to other cases she had recently read about and meander through news articles and research papers.
A very pretty girl suddenly came close to her, carrying a china plate filled with pink macarons. Olivia blinked in surprise, but then the girl offered her some, and she couldn't help but smile.
"What's the flavor of a rose?" Olivia wondered out loud with a little frown. No matter that she didn't know this girl, or that the offer of food was something one should be more careful about with the recent wave of mysterious poisonings. She had read the papers, after all... "I guess that, like... It tastes like it smells?" Olivia knew some middle eastern desserts used something called rosewater in its cooking, but she wasn't sure if it was actually rose flavored.
Well, Olivia was now intrigued. She reached out, took one pink macaron, and examined it before taking a small bite. "Thank you," she hurried to said, her mouth full, before taking a moment to savor it.
Do they know their family? Were they raised by them?
Olivia knows her most direct family members, that being her parents and grandparents. She has no cousins, uncles or aunts, at least none that she knows of. Hazel Flaversham, her mother, disappeared mysteriously and without a trace when Olivia was an infant: nobody knows if it had been voluntarily or not. This event threw Olivia's father, Hiram Flaversham, into a paranoid phase (which one might say he never fully overcame) during which he began fixating nearly obsessively on Olivia's safety and whereabouts, to make sure she wouldn't disappear like her mother did. And then, a few years later, it was Hiram's turn to disappear...
Olivia's contact with her paternal grandparents, Richard and Patricia Flaversham, was quite brief and distant, what with Hiram's tense relationship with them. Richard and Patricia had been the ones to insist on meeting semi-regularly with their granddaughter, even if they still rejected Hiram as their son. After Hiram decided not to join the family business and came out to them as bisexual, back when he was just starting as a college student at a business school, his already crumbling relationship with his parents was finally destroyed. Hiram and his father had a big fight and falling out, and despite Patricia's constant attempts at convincing her son to apologize, go back to business school and follow in his father's steps as head of his company, he had made up his mind. Even if it didn't bring in much money, he would follow his dreams to become an artist, a sculptor and inventor. His bohemian lifestyle shifted slightly when his girlfriend Hazel, a similarly free-spirited writer and theater critic, turned up pregnant, and they decided to keep the child and make sure she was raised in a more stable environment. Hazel herself, a New Zealander living in Edinburgh, tried to pursue a career as a professional writer while raising little Olivia, though she went missing before she could become a published author. After more than a decade, Hiram still secretly wonders if she had walked out on them, and often goes over his last memories of her, to try and find out any possible reason for why she might have left.
When Olivia moved to Invercargill with her father, after his disappearance and eventual rescue, she often stayed with her maternal grandparents, Anne and Phineas Browne. They both cared for their granddaughter while Hiram was away from home, trying for jobs and finishing college to get a degree in engineering. Olivia became very close to them and considers them a second set of parents. Even Hiram ended up seeing them as surrogate parental figures, warm, caring and loving as they were, and supportive of their son-in-law and granddaughter's dreams and projects, wherever they may take them.
What was your character’s relationship like with their parents?
Olivia and her father are very close, though sometimes Olivia wishes she could be a little more independent. For the last few years Hiram has slowly been accepting that he needs to let his daughter become her own person and forge her own path, mostly for her happiness though also partly to make sure he doesn't become just like his parents, controlling and authoritative. However, now that she's an adult, Olivia has been wondering if she should move out of Redwood Hollow, where her father has already happily settled down and found a good job, and follow a career in criminology in a bigger city that could pose more of a challenge. This would mean leaving her father behind, which, while originally a goal she had in order to become self-sufficient, now has her doubting whether she can truly manage, knowing herself to still be perhaps a bit too trusting and naïve to face life in a city on her own.
If they weren’t raised by their parents, who raised them? Do they consider the people that raised them to be their family?
Partly raised by her maternal grandparents, Olivia definitely considers them her family. She loves them dearly and are one of the aspects of her life in Invercargill she misses the most.
Overall, how did the idea of family affect your character?
Family is very important to Olivia, but over time it has slowly lost its status as her priority and main source of relationships. Even with how much she misses her maternal grandparents, she finds she misses her friends just as much, and as part of her efforts to make a name for herself apart from her father, she's been trying to focus more on herself and on her own wants and needs.
Thinking about the future, do they want to make a family of their own? What would that look like to them?
Olivia isn't very much interested in having a family of her own. From a couple jobs as a babysitter, she learned she isn't the best at dealing with kids and would much rather she didn't have to interact with them too often. Apart from that, she has never been one to fantasize with romance and marriage and would much rather have a bunch of friends to call her family than searching for a supposed other half.
