Solara's BG
Jun. 15th, 2003 01:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinjunFor perusal, review, and tweaking by the DM/GM/ST/whatever you want to be called.
Solara (aka Cira Johnson)
Metrics:
Age - 20
Height - 5'6"
Weight - 125 lbs
Eyes – Amber
Hair – Strawberry Blonde
Skin - Tan
Occupation – Circus Acrobat
Relationships Summary:
Amanda Ricker – Mother – 42 years old. Cira does not get along with her.
Daniel Johnson – Father – 48 years old. Cira gets along with her father.
Simon Barnes - brother younger – hates her 18 years old
Hawk Johnson - brother older – hero worships 22 years old
Sybill Cannes - sister older dislikes 25 years old
Melinda Michaels - sister eldest neutral 26 years old
Quinn O’Malley - best friend, like a big brother to her. 24 years old.
Josh Parker - 1 enemy – official in the government - 38 years old
Larissa Quartermain - Another enemy – female – 21 years old.
Benson Tye – ex-boyfriend. 22 years old
Yolanda Grey – 45 years old. Powerful connection in the DA’s office
Background
To really understand Solara, you have to start with her mother. Amanda Ricker was an only child, born late in life to a rich Oil Tycoon who lived close to the western oil fields. She spent her childhood in a small town, but moved east to the big city before she reached her teenage years. A lot of money and a lot of big city weren’t good for Amanda’s lifestyle, much to her father’s chagrin. Amanda had her first child by the time she was 16, a girl she named Melinda. Melinda’s father, Tony Michaels, was a drug dealer, and he ended up in jail when Amanda’s father (“Big Joe” Ricker) caught on to him. Within a year, Amanda was pregnant again, having met up with a French Mime, who was part of a traveling circus. At least, that’s who she claimed the father was, though there was some confusion over the issue. This time she gave birth to another girl, and named her Sybill. The mime left when the circus did, but Amanda still gave Sybill her father’s last name, rather than her own.
It was about this time that Big Joe decided to try some tough love, and Amanda was placed into drug rehab until she was cleaned up and straight. Her daughters never forgave their grandfather for stealing their mother from them, since after she was released, Amanda didn’t want to see any sign of her previously depraved existence. She moved to another town, leaving her girls with their grandfather, and fell in love with Daniel Johnson, a neophyte lawyer at the DA’s office. When she was 19, and he was 25, she and Daniel got married. By the time she was 20, she had her first son, and the couple named him Hawk after Daniel’s great grandfather. A year later, Big Joe died, leaving everything to Amanda, and she started drinking. The couple started fighting worse than cats and dogs, and in an attempt to keep Daniel from leaving, Amanda got pregnant again, giving birth to Solara. Her attempt at manipulation failed, and within a year after Solara’s birth, Daniel and Amanda were divorced.
Amanda went through a string of men recklessly, almost as fast as she went through money, and thus, she ended up pregnant again, obviously not very careful with either her own health or her wallet. Following her own habit, she named her youngest child Simon Barnes after his father. It is important to note that the only one of the men she slept with that Amanda even professed to love was Daniel Johnson, and this was reflected in her attitude towards her children.
Now then, having properly set up the pre-history, it’s time to look at Solara herself.
Early Childhood
For the very first few months of her life, Cira (as her mother named her) was with her mother, father and 2 year old brother Hawk, Johnsons all of them. Of course, there were a lot of fights at that time, and Amanda didn’t stay clean much longer than it took to birth a reasonably healthy baby girl, before she was back on the bottle. Once Daniel moved out, Amanda soon followed suit, running back home to her teenage haunts. Of course, this moved Hawk and Cira in with the two older half sibs who pretty much disliked both Cira and Hawk on principle. Over time, Melinda outgrew that hatred to some extent, but Sybill’s dramatic nature ensures that she dislikes both Cira and Hawk to this very day.
Cira was 2 by the time her younger brother Simon was born. She was a silent and sober two year old, a little skittish, but well prepared to love her baby brother. If not for Hawk protecting her from her older sisters, Cira’s life would have been pure hell, or as close to it as Melinda and Sybill could manage. It was okay when she was a toddler, but by the time she was three, the two older girls had decided that everything that was wrong with their mother was all Cira’s fault. If Amanda yelled at them, it was Cira’s fault. If Amanda had a hissy fit, it was Cira’s fault. The girl ended up with a well-earned dislike of her mother.
What saved her from growing into a really warped and maladjusted girl was a woman named Yolanda Grey. Yolanda is a lawyer to this day, and she was in law school just a couple years behind Daniel Johnson. In fact, Daniel mentored Yolanda through a couple of classes, and she ended up in the DA’s office as well, but in a different city than Daniel. In the same city as Cira grew up in. Daniel and Yolanda kept in touch even after Daniel became a judge in New York City, and Daniel did arrange for visitation rights with his two children right up front. That only pushed the gap between the children further, though it wasn’t something Daniel meant to do. The problem was that Cira and Hawk were the only two of the 5 children with a father who was actually around, who sent gifts, and who paid his alimony and child support on time without quibbling. Yolanda had lunch with Daniel, Hawk and Cira one day, and ever after, she made a point of meeting with the two at least once a week.
School was the one thing that made everything go okay, during Cira’s younger years. First, because it was time when Sybill and Melinda weren’t home, so they couldn’t torment her. She had a bit of a rough time when Hawk started school without her, but with Yolanda’s help, she adjusted over time. The crying fits and temper tantrums faded, by the time she was in school for her own first day. The second reason why school made everything better is because it got Cira out of the house, and away from her mother’s drunken debauchery.
School also introduced Cira to two things that are dear to her to this very day. First, she met Quinn O’Malley one day, after her sisters managed to leave her crying in the playground. And of course, it was at school that the young Cira was introduced to gymnastics, and that sparked her career choice, even at the young age of 5.
For a while, things settled down. Cira was an average student in her studies, often enlisting help from Quinn or Hawk when she didn’t understand something. A slight stubborn streak helped her get through the subjects she found difficult, though it occasionally caused her trouble with teachers when she refused to let go of something they no longer wished to talk about. Still, she managed to pass each year, though never with flying colours.
Quinn made a point to protect Cira at school, since he was just enough older that her siblings couldn’t bully him. In fact, Sybill had quite a crush on him for a while, which only caused more trouble for Cira. (He liked her better than Sybill, as Simon consistently pointed out.) One time though, when Cira was 7, Quinn wasn’t there in time and Sybill and a couple of her friends beat Cira up enough to break a couple ribs and blacken her eye. When Daniel found out, the lawyer promptly put his daughter in self defense classes.
Late Childhood
As time went on though, Amanda’s habits began to get more expensive, and she ran through her father’s fortune at an alarming rate. It wasn’t that the family became poor, exactly, but well, the credit card bills started to run up. Cira was one of the two youngest, and Hawk protected her as much as he could from this knowledge. So too did Sybill and Melinda, if only because they wanted to protect their darling boy, Simon. In any event, so far as Cira was concerned, things were reasonably okay throughout her childhood and early teens, so long as she could keep away from three of her four siblings. The self defense classes helped with that, since they ensured that just one of her siblings would never pick on her, not by his or herself.
If Christmas and birthday gifts got smaller as time went on, she didn’t entirely figure it out. Though, the day that someone at school told her that her hand-me-downs were out of style, that she was poor, that day she realized how her family lifestyle had slowly changed. It’s also the day she determined that she would make it on her own. Somehow, someway. She would get to the stage where she would no longer have to worry about money, and make Larissa Quartermain eat her words. She’d live down the stigma, and she, along with everyone else, would be able to forget it. That happened when she was 16.
Of course, Larissa and Cira were tied for tops on the gymnastics team all through school, which brought the both of them into the limelight a bit. From the age of 12 to 15, the two were fast friends, working out together in the gym, spending nights over at each other’s house, and otherwise being young teenaged girls. Until a boy got in the way.
No, not Hawk, and not Quinn. Benson Tye.
See, Cira was working really hard on her acrobatics, and learning things that Larissa was frankly too big to manage. Benson was the football quarterback, and he took a fancy to Cira’s flexibility, and long strawberry blonde hair. It was enough to convince him to woo her, and the side bets his buddies made on whether he could score didn’t hurt his determination to win her over. He started when Cira was 14, and she was absolutely swept off her feet by his charm.
Unfortunately, Larissa decided she wanted Benson, and so she began to subtly pick at Cira, who trusted her friend a little too much to notice. Benson didn’t notice either, but then, he didn’t make the football team on brains. Slowly, Larissa began to wean him away from Cira, who wouldn’t sleep with him anyway. (What? Like she was going to copy her mother’s example? Fat Chance!) Larissa had no such hang up, and one day, shortly before her 16th birthday, Cira walked in on Larissa and Benson totally engrossed in each other. She threw his school jacket at him and ran sobbing out of the school, heading all the way to the Rouge River Bridge.
Standing there above the deep river, she considered if she should just end it all. She stayed there deep into the night, thinking. And when she left, it was with a solemn promise to herself that she wouldn’t ever make such a mistake again and a hatred for Larissa that was just as big as her friendship had ever been.
Three days later, she was in the hospital in a meningitis induced coma.
That night on the bridge, she was seen by someone – one Bob Redman, an elected city official. He was suspected of sleeping around on his wife, with underaged girls, but had always managed to squirm out of trouble. He noted her there, and had her followed, so that he could find out who she was, something he had no trouble at all in finding out, without Cira or anyone else ever knowing. He didn’t at first come up with his nefarious plan, but it didn’t take too long for him to figure out how to kill two birds with one stone. Of course, he didn’t share his plans with anyone, and certainly not with the blackmailing prostitute that was costing him a fortune in order to save his reputation, and not get kicked out of office, and into jail.
By the time Cira recovered enough to get back to school, Larissa had won that year’s gymnastics competition, she and Benson were firmly a couple, and both were extremely sarcastic to Cira whenever they crossed her path. To this day, they still are, though times change, and it’s not often that the three see each other. In fact, once the lot graduated from high school, they pretty much never saw each other again, at least, up until the current date.
Despite the meningitis, it took only one term of summer school for Cira to catch up in her studies. She threw herself into her acrobatics, self defense, and gymnastics even more, since she had nothing else to do. There was no way she was dating anyone, locking her heart up instead. Hawk and Quinn worried about it, somewhat, but there wasn’t anything they could do. Her father tried to distract her with flying lessons, something that she never would have been able to afford on her own, but that had only limited success. She did learn to fly a plane though, but had little effect on her emotional reserves. In fact, it’s likely because she was so withdrawn emotionally during that time that she managed to learn to fly the plane. At the same time, driving a car was a skill she picked up easily, and her mother insisted she get her driver’s license.
The last couple of years of high school went by quickly and reasonably well, with Cira graduating along with the rest of her class. She won the last two gymnastics competitions, but it was an empty victory, since Larissa had Benson to console her when she lost. She was scouted by a talent agent for L’Etoile Circus in her last year of high school, famous for its acrobatics and trapeze artists – something that interested Cira immensely, though she kept it a secret from everyone, even Hawk and Quinn at first. Her family, she knew already, would be against her joining a circus, no matter how talented she was acrobatically. L’etoile would train her talent, and the scout promised her she could be a star within two years, if she wanted to be. She didn’t go to her high school prom, which in retrospect was a bad choice. That was the night that everything went to pieces on Cira, and life just hasn’t been the same since.
Recent History
By the time Cira graduated from high school, she had passed her driving tests, and obtained her regular driver’s license. She also had a license to fly general purpose, fixed wing aircraft, courtesy of her father’s money and her own aptitudes. It was about this time that she was beginning to come out of her self-imposed isolation after Benson broke her heart. Time might not heal all wounds, but Cira was beginning to get over Benson when she received her high school diploma.
Meanwhile, Bob Redman had not been idle. He’d actually met Cira a couple times, presenting her with medals for her gymnastics and acrobatics. He was there when she learned how to juggle, since that was a day when L’Etoile was performing at her high school and one of the clowns saw how fascinated Cira was with the whole thing. He just kept showing up, commenting occasionally how nice it was to be invited to such events personally – since he enjoyed getting to know his constituents. “Invited by who?” Was the inevitable question, but Bob just always smiled and said nothing, leading to idle speculation about just who it was inviting him to these events at Cross Street High School. Certainly his antics led to some odd looks for Cira though she wasn’t any more famous than any other high school sports champ.
Bob did invite Cira out a few times, but she always turned him down. Not stopped by that roadblock, he asked questions about her, and discovered that Benson and Larissa were willing to talk about their ex-friend, in not necessarily glowing terms. Armed with the information they unwittingly gave him, Bob continued along with his plans, even managing to get hold of a champagne glass that Cira used at a celebratory party after she won her last high school gymnastics championship. Larissa was more than willing to snatch it, put it in a plastic bag, and give it to Bob, with no questions asked.
Instead of going to her prom on that fateful night, Cira went out to a restaurant with Hawk and Quin, both of whom had already graduated, and were willing to keep her company, since she didn’t really taste any success in her graduation. She wasn’t upset over it, just it wasn’t really that important to her. They had a lovely evening, and then all went home. Solara slipped out though, going for a walk along her favorite trails, the ones that lead right by City Hall. She just needed a chance to be alone for a bit, and there was certainly no chance of that at home.
Frankly, this just made things easy for Bob Redman, placing Cira in the wrong place at the wrong time, just as a crime was going down. He didn’t know that one Josh Parker, his competition for a prime council seat in the mayor’s office, was investigating him privately. That’s the only thing that saved Cira’s hide, and even that was an incomplete sort of thing. Bob Redman had been setting this up for almost 2 years, and he thought he had determined the perfect crime. He had fingerprints, he had a dupe, he even had a murder victim – Leeza the prostitute who he’d been friendly with for years, until she got a bit too old for his tastes. That’s when Leeza started to blackmail him, and Bob decided enough was enough. He set things up so that it looked like Cira murdered the prostitute out of jealousy, wanting to take her place in Bob’s affections. He’d sent Cira an anonymous note, asking her to come meet Benson Tye at a motel on the sleezier side of town. Cira went, a small spark of hope in her heart that maybe Benson had at last seen reason, and she’d be able to tell him to his face that he’s an idiot and doesn’t deserve her. This is of course why she slipped out on her big brother, after having a nice relaxing evening with friends.
Meanwhile, Josh Parker had almost convinced Leeza to go public with her story about Bob when she was killed. He was on his way to meet her at that motel, because she called him, worried about meeting Bob here. She didn’t really know what, but something seemed odd. Bob had changed the usual meeting place, and she didn’t like this hotel at all. Josh was delayed though, by a phone call from his wife, upset over his missing dinner. He arrived just in time to see the murderer leaving, or at least someone leaving the scene - before Cira arrived. In fact, he was there to see Cira arrive, find the body, dial 911 to report the emergency, and then just leave in shock. Leeza’s body was not a pretty sight for any one, let alone an 18 year old girl who’d been relatively protected her whole life. It was Josh’s testimony that kept the police from having to hunt Cira down, as she was never charged.
The proof that Bob set up was circumstantial. Since he never could get Cira to have anything to do with him, a lot of his murder frame was based on innuendo and the DA’s office couldn’t find enough to convict. The biggest pointer to the murderer being Cira was the champagne glass with her fingerprints. But the forensics scientists admitted that the prints seemed to be older than Leeza’s were, on the glass that actually contained the poison. There was enough confusion that the police released Cira, though they may yet be keeping tabs on her. To this day, the killer of Leeza Alahana remains at large.
The problem with all this is that Cira’s name hasn’t been cleared yet – she was implicated by Bob Redman, and though the police couldn’t find quite enough evidence to charge her, they haven’t yet decided that she should be cleared either. However, the fact that Leeza was poisoned is just one of those things that gave everyone pause. Cira had no way to know that Leeza was allergic to seaweed, nor to put the poison and the seaweed together in such a way that it took the forensic scientists days to figure it out. She was after all, just barely graduated from high school, even if her finger print was on one of the glasses at the motel. The time she ended up spending in court was eye opening for her, and it gave her impetus to learn how to shoot a gun, just in case. When she went to apply for shooting lessons, passing her written test so that she can get a gun license in future, there was still no reason to turn her down – she hasn’t officially been charged with anything, not even a parking ticket.
Cira was brought in for questioning, to be sure, and she ran across Josh Parker at that time, mostly because Josh made sure to be there. He had a few things to say for her, upset because he believed she destroyed his plan to defeat Bob Redman just by living really. It’s not a rational anger that Josh feels, since it’s his testimony that has partly kept Cira out of trouble. Still, he absolutely detests her, because Bob Redman was trying to use her as a tool, and she got in his way. Josh is certain he’d have Redman’s job now, if not for Cira.
Of course, Cira had no idea what he was talking about at the time, and she still really doesn’t, except that the man was in a rage, and obviously believed that Cira was responsible for something going wrong. She knew she’d found a dead body, but until after her talk with the police, she didn’t realize that she was a suspect. Well, not really. After all, she’d never met Leeza – that was something Bob had never managed to set up.
With all that was going on, she still accepted the job offered her by L’Etoile Circus, and began studying in earnest to be an acrobat and a tightrope walker. She performed in the trapeze show more often than not, as she honed her skills over the course of the next two years. Solara was born, and Cira stopped using the name her mother gave her, except under extreme circumstances like dealing with government officials.
Her brush with the police shocked her whole family, including both Quinn and Hawk, though they supported her through everything. Her father had to remain somewhat removed during this time, and the whole murder frame has put a strain on that relationship, as Daniel is somewhat worried that Cira might be taking after her mother too much, despite his attempts at keeping her stable. Yolanda has been arguing in Cira’s favour, trying to talk Daniel into seeing sense. Solara, for her part, is out to clear her name, if ever she can figure out how. Certainly, this isn’t something she advertises, and since the headlines died down over a year ago, folks don’t even connect her with the mysterious death of the hooker.
She did learn how to use a gun though, as previously mentioned. She passed her written test, with help from Quinn, since Hawk refused to help her learn how to destroy anything. (Hawk doesn’t really like guns, feeling they’re cold and merciless killing tools.) She took lessons throughout her time at L’Etoile, shaken by her close call, and she still goes to the practice range when she has a chance. In addition, she never did give up on her martial arts lessons, continuing with them, while many other girls her age went out on dates or shopping at the mall. About the only thing she regrets about those martial arts lessons is that she can’t take them with Quinn any more – she’s not home often enough to stick with her initial dojo. It means she hasn’t raised in the ranks as quickly as she might otherwise have, but she’s still very proud of her brown belt. Quinn, with his black belt, teases her about it on occasion, which always makes Hawk roll his eyes. Course, his black belt is even higher than Quinn’s, so you know, he isn’t really in any position to talk. He’s in law school currently, just starting his first year, while Quinn is working his way through medical school by working in the local strip club as a bouncer. Hawk has managed to get help from Daniel, since he’s chosen the same profession as his Dad, so he’s lucky enough to not need to work while studying.
Bob Redman won the next election, though it was a close call, with Josh Parker being a very close second. Josh despises Cira, as much as she despises him, though Cira goes out of her way to avoid Josh, something that’s easy enough since the two frequent completely different circles. Bob might not avoid Cira, but she’s now too old for his tastes, and frankly, he got what he wanted, so he doesn’t really care about her any more.
Quinn and Hawk have stayed in touch with Solara, though her association with the rest of her family has come to a complete end. She’s not been actually disowned yet, but the possibility exists, if she doesn’t straighten up and get out of the circus. She doesn’t see Quinn or Hawk very often, but they do still have good times when they do get together, about once every three or four months, or when the circus comes to town. It’s about that often that Solara sees Yolanda, and maybe once every six months over the past two years that she’s seen her father.
After about 2 years with L’Etoile, Solara’s reputation among the circus folk was growing, as was her skill, aided by a natural talent. This is when she met Andre Faw, who offered her a better paying job with Le Cirque, an offer she accepted only two weeks ago, almost to the very day.
Solara (aka Cira Johnson)
Metrics:
Age - 20
Height - 5'6"
Weight - 125 lbs
Eyes – Amber
Hair – Strawberry Blonde
Skin - Tan
Occupation – Circus Acrobat
Relationships Summary:
Amanda Ricker – Mother – 42 years old. Cira does not get along with her.
Daniel Johnson – Father – 48 years old. Cira gets along with her father.
Simon Barnes - brother younger – hates her 18 years old
Hawk Johnson - brother older – hero worships 22 years old
Sybill Cannes - sister older dislikes 25 years old
Melinda Michaels - sister eldest neutral 26 years old
Quinn O’Malley - best friend, like a big brother to her. 24 years old.
Josh Parker - 1 enemy – official in the government - 38 years old
Larissa Quartermain - Another enemy – female – 21 years old.
Benson Tye – ex-boyfriend. 22 years old
Yolanda Grey – 45 years old. Powerful connection in the DA’s office
Background
To really understand Solara, you have to start with her mother. Amanda Ricker was an only child, born late in life to a rich Oil Tycoon who lived close to the western oil fields. She spent her childhood in a small town, but moved east to the big city before she reached her teenage years. A lot of money and a lot of big city weren’t good for Amanda’s lifestyle, much to her father’s chagrin. Amanda had her first child by the time she was 16, a girl she named Melinda. Melinda’s father, Tony Michaels, was a drug dealer, and he ended up in jail when Amanda’s father (“Big Joe” Ricker) caught on to him. Within a year, Amanda was pregnant again, having met up with a French Mime, who was part of a traveling circus. At least, that’s who she claimed the father was, though there was some confusion over the issue. This time she gave birth to another girl, and named her Sybill. The mime left when the circus did, but Amanda still gave Sybill her father’s last name, rather than her own.
It was about this time that Big Joe decided to try some tough love, and Amanda was placed into drug rehab until she was cleaned up and straight. Her daughters never forgave their grandfather for stealing their mother from them, since after she was released, Amanda didn’t want to see any sign of her previously depraved existence. She moved to another town, leaving her girls with their grandfather, and fell in love with Daniel Johnson, a neophyte lawyer at the DA’s office. When she was 19, and he was 25, she and Daniel got married. By the time she was 20, she had her first son, and the couple named him Hawk after Daniel’s great grandfather. A year later, Big Joe died, leaving everything to Amanda, and she started drinking. The couple started fighting worse than cats and dogs, and in an attempt to keep Daniel from leaving, Amanda got pregnant again, giving birth to Solara. Her attempt at manipulation failed, and within a year after Solara’s birth, Daniel and Amanda were divorced.
Amanda went through a string of men recklessly, almost as fast as she went through money, and thus, she ended up pregnant again, obviously not very careful with either her own health or her wallet. Following her own habit, she named her youngest child Simon Barnes after his father. It is important to note that the only one of the men she slept with that Amanda even professed to love was Daniel Johnson, and this was reflected in her attitude towards her children.
Now then, having properly set up the pre-history, it’s time to look at Solara herself.
Early Childhood
For the very first few months of her life, Cira (as her mother named her) was with her mother, father and 2 year old brother Hawk, Johnsons all of them. Of course, there were a lot of fights at that time, and Amanda didn’t stay clean much longer than it took to birth a reasonably healthy baby girl, before she was back on the bottle. Once Daniel moved out, Amanda soon followed suit, running back home to her teenage haunts. Of course, this moved Hawk and Cira in with the two older half sibs who pretty much disliked both Cira and Hawk on principle. Over time, Melinda outgrew that hatred to some extent, but Sybill’s dramatic nature ensures that she dislikes both Cira and Hawk to this very day.
Cira was 2 by the time her younger brother Simon was born. She was a silent and sober two year old, a little skittish, but well prepared to love her baby brother. If not for Hawk protecting her from her older sisters, Cira’s life would have been pure hell, or as close to it as Melinda and Sybill could manage. It was okay when she was a toddler, but by the time she was three, the two older girls had decided that everything that was wrong with their mother was all Cira’s fault. If Amanda yelled at them, it was Cira’s fault. If Amanda had a hissy fit, it was Cira’s fault. The girl ended up with a well-earned dislike of her mother.
What saved her from growing into a really warped and maladjusted girl was a woman named Yolanda Grey. Yolanda is a lawyer to this day, and she was in law school just a couple years behind Daniel Johnson. In fact, Daniel mentored Yolanda through a couple of classes, and she ended up in the DA’s office as well, but in a different city than Daniel. In the same city as Cira grew up in. Daniel and Yolanda kept in touch even after Daniel became a judge in New York City, and Daniel did arrange for visitation rights with his two children right up front. That only pushed the gap between the children further, though it wasn’t something Daniel meant to do. The problem was that Cira and Hawk were the only two of the 5 children with a father who was actually around, who sent gifts, and who paid his alimony and child support on time without quibbling. Yolanda had lunch with Daniel, Hawk and Cira one day, and ever after, she made a point of meeting with the two at least once a week.
School was the one thing that made everything go okay, during Cira’s younger years. First, because it was time when Sybill and Melinda weren’t home, so they couldn’t torment her. She had a bit of a rough time when Hawk started school without her, but with Yolanda’s help, she adjusted over time. The crying fits and temper tantrums faded, by the time she was in school for her own first day. The second reason why school made everything better is because it got Cira out of the house, and away from her mother’s drunken debauchery.
School also introduced Cira to two things that are dear to her to this very day. First, she met Quinn O’Malley one day, after her sisters managed to leave her crying in the playground. And of course, it was at school that the young Cira was introduced to gymnastics, and that sparked her career choice, even at the young age of 5.
For a while, things settled down. Cira was an average student in her studies, often enlisting help from Quinn or Hawk when she didn’t understand something. A slight stubborn streak helped her get through the subjects she found difficult, though it occasionally caused her trouble with teachers when she refused to let go of something they no longer wished to talk about. Still, she managed to pass each year, though never with flying colours.
Quinn made a point to protect Cira at school, since he was just enough older that her siblings couldn’t bully him. In fact, Sybill had quite a crush on him for a while, which only caused more trouble for Cira. (He liked her better than Sybill, as Simon consistently pointed out.) One time though, when Cira was 7, Quinn wasn’t there in time and Sybill and a couple of her friends beat Cira up enough to break a couple ribs and blacken her eye. When Daniel found out, the lawyer promptly put his daughter in self defense classes.
Late Childhood
As time went on though, Amanda’s habits began to get more expensive, and she ran through her father’s fortune at an alarming rate. It wasn’t that the family became poor, exactly, but well, the credit card bills started to run up. Cira was one of the two youngest, and Hawk protected her as much as he could from this knowledge. So too did Sybill and Melinda, if only because they wanted to protect their darling boy, Simon. In any event, so far as Cira was concerned, things were reasonably okay throughout her childhood and early teens, so long as she could keep away from three of her four siblings. The self defense classes helped with that, since they ensured that just one of her siblings would never pick on her, not by his or herself.
If Christmas and birthday gifts got smaller as time went on, she didn’t entirely figure it out. Though, the day that someone at school told her that her hand-me-downs were out of style, that she was poor, that day she realized how her family lifestyle had slowly changed. It’s also the day she determined that she would make it on her own. Somehow, someway. She would get to the stage where she would no longer have to worry about money, and make Larissa Quartermain eat her words. She’d live down the stigma, and she, along with everyone else, would be able to forget it. That happened when she was 16.
Of course, Larissa and Cira were tied for tops on the gymnastics team all through school, which brought the both of them into the limelight a bit. From the age of 12 to 15, the two were fast friends, working out together in the gym, spending nights over at each other’s house, and otherwise being young teenaged girls. Until a boy got in the way.
No, not Hawk, and not Quinn. Benson Tye.
See, Cira was working really hard on her acrobatics, and learning things that Larissa was frankly too big to manage. Benson was the football quarterback, and he took a fancy to Cira’s flexibility, and long strawberry blonde hair. It was enough to convince him to woo her, and the side bets his buddies made on whether he could score didn’t hurt his determination to win her over. He started when Cira was 14, and she was absolutely swept off her feet by his charm.
Unfortunately, Larissa decided she wanted Benson, and so she began to subtly pick at Cira, who trusted her friend a little too much to notice. Benson didn’t notice either, but then, he didn’t make the football team on brains. Slowly, Larissa began to wean him away from Cira, who wouldn’t sleep with him anyway. (What? Like she was going to copy her mother’s example? Fat Chance!) Larissa had no such hang up, and one day, shortly before her 16th birthday, Cira walked in on Larissa and Benson totally engrossed in each other. She threw his school jacket at him and ran sobbing out of the school, heading all the way to the Rouge River Bridge.
Standing there above the deep river, she considered if she should just end it all. She stayed there deep into the night, thinking. And when she left, it was with a solemn promise to herself that she wouldn’t ever make such a mistake again and a hatred for Larissa that was just as big as her friendship had ever been.
Three days later, she was in the hospital in a meningitis induced coma.
That night on the bridge, she was seen by someone – one Bob Redman, an elected city official. He was suspected of sleeping around on his wife, with underaged girls, but had always managed to squirm out of trouble. He noted her there, and had her followed, so that he could find out who she was, something he had no trouble at all in finding out, without Cira or anyone else ever knowing. He didn’t at first come up with his nefarious plan, but it didn’t take too long for him to figure out how to kill two birds with one stone. Of course, he didn’t share his plans with anyone, and certainly not with the blackmailing prostitute that was costing him a fortune in order to save his reputation, and not get kicked out of office, and into jail.
By the time Cira recovered enough to get back to school, Larissa had won that year’s gymnastics competition, she and Benson were firmly a couple, and both were extremely sarcastic to Cira whenever they crossed her path. To this day, they still are, though times change, and it’s not often that the three see each other. In fact, once the lot graduated from high school, they pretty much never saw each other again, at least, up until the current date.
Despite the meningitis, it took only one term of summer school for Cira to catch up in her studies. She threw herself into her acrobatics, self defense, and gymnastics even more, since she had nothing else to do. There was no way she was dating anyone, locking her heart up instead. Hawk and Quinn worried about it, somewhat, but there wasn’t anything they could do. Her father tried to distract her with flying lessons, something that she never would have been able to afford on her own, but that had only limited success. She did learn to fly a plane though, but had little effect on her emotional reserves. In fact, it’s likely because she was so withdrawn emotionally during that time that she managed to learn to fly the plane. At the same time, driving a car was a skill she picked up easily, and her mother insisted she get her driver’s license.
The last couple of years of high school went by quickly and reasonably well, with Cira graduating along with the rest of her class. She won the last two gymnastics competitions, but it was an empty victory, since Larissa had Benson to console her when she lost. She was scouted by a talent agent for L’Etoile Circus in her last year of high school, famous for its acrobatics and trapeze artists – something that interested Cira immensely, though she kept it a secret from everyone, even Hawk and Quinn at first. Her family, she knew already, would be against her joining a circus, no matter how talented she was acrobatically. L’etoile would train her talent, and the scout promised her she could be a star within two years, if she wanted to be. She didn’t go to her high school prom, which in retrospect was a bad choice. That was the night that everything went to pieces on Cira, and life just hasn’t been the same since.
Recent History
By the time Cira graduated from high school, she had passed her driving tests, and obtained her regular driver’s license. She also had a license to fly general purpose, fixed wing aircraft, courtesy of her father’s money and her own aptitudes. It was about this time that she was beginning to come out of her self-imposed isolation after Benson broke her heart. Time might not heal all wounds, but Cira was beginning to get over Benson when she received her high school diploma.
Meanwhile, Bob Redman had not been idle. He’d actually met Cira a couple times, presenting her with medals for her gymnastics and acrobatics. He was there when she learned how to juggle, since that was a day when L’Etoile was performing at her high school and one of the clowns saw how fascinated Cira was with the whole thing. He just kept showing up, commenting occasionally how nice it was to be invited to such events personally – since he enjoyed getting to know his constituents. “Invited by who?” Was the inevitable question, but Bob just always smiled and said nothing, leading to idle speculation about just who it was inviting him to these events at Cross Street High School. Certainly his antics led to some odd looks for Cira though she wasn’t any more famous than any other high school sports champ.
Bob did invite Cira out a few times, but she always turned him down. Not stopped by that roadblock, he asked questions about her, and discovered that Benson and Larissa were willing to talk about their ex-friend, in not necessarily glowing terms. Armed with the information they unwittingly gave him, Bob continued along with his plans, even managing to get hold of a champagne glass that Cira used at a celebratory party after she won her last high school gymnastics championship. Larissa was more than willing to snatch it, put it in a plastic bag, and give it to Bob, with no questions asked.
Instead of going to her prom on that fateful night, Cira went out to a restaurant with Hawk and Quin, both of whom had already graduated, and were willing to keep her company, since she didn’t really taste any success in her graduation. She wasn’t upset over it, just it wasn’t really that important to her. They had a lovely evening, and then all went home. Solara slipped out though, going for a walk along her favorite trails, the ones that lead right by City Hall. She just needed a chance to be alone for a bit, and there was certainly no chance of that at home.
Frankly, this just made things easy for Bob Redman, placing Cira in the wrong place at the wrong time, just as a crime was going down. He didn’t know that one Josh Parker, his competition for a prime council seat in the mayor’s office, was investigating him privately. That’s the only thing that saved Cira’s hide, and even that was an incomplete sort of thing. Bob Redman had been setting this up for almost 2 years, and he thought he had determined the perfect crime. He had fingerprints, he had a dupe, he even had a murder victim – Leeza the prostitute who he’d been friendly with for years, until she got a bit too old for his tastes. That’s when Leeza started to blackmail him, and Bob decided enough was enough. He set things up so that it looked like Cira murdered the prostitute out of jealousy, wanting to take her place in Bob’s affections. He’d sent Cira an anonymous note, asking her to come meet Benson Tye at a motel on the sleezier side of town. Cira went, a small spark of hope in her heart that maybe Benson had at last seen reason, and she’d be able to tell him to his face that he’s an idiot and doesn’t deserve her. This is of course why she slipped out on her big brother, after having a nice relaxing evening with friends.
Meanwhile, Josh Parker had almost convinced Leeza to go public with her story about Bob when she was killed. He was on his way to meet her at that motel, because she called him, worried about meeting Bob here. She didn’t really know what, but something seemed odd. Bob had changed the usual meeting place, and she didn’t like this hotel at all. Josh was delayed though, by a phone call from his wife, upset over his missing dinner. He arrived just in time to see the murderer leaving, or at least someone leaving the scene - before Cira arrived. In fact, he was there to see Cira arrive, find the body, dial 911 to report the emergency, and then just leave in shock. Leeza’s body was not a pretty sight for any one, let alone an 18 year old girl who’d been relatively protected her whole life. It was Josh’s testimony that kept the police from having to hunt Cira down, as she was never charged.
The proof that Bob set up was circumstantial. Since he never could get Cira to have anything to do with him, a lot of his murder frame was based on innuendo and the DA’s office couldn’t find enough to convict. The biggest pointer to the murderer being Cira was the champagne glass with her fingerprints. But the forensics scientists admitted that the prints seemed to be older than Leeza’s were, on the glass that actually contained the poison. There was enough confusion that the police released Cira, though they may yet be keeping tabs on her. To this day, the killer of Leeza Alahana remains at large.
The problem with all this is that Cira’s name hasn’t been cleared yet – she was implicated by Bob Redman, and though the police couldn’t find quite enough evidence to charge her, they haven’t yet decided that she should be cleared either. However, the fact that Leeza was poisoned is just one of those things that gave everyone pause. Cira had no way to know that Leeza was allergic to seaweed, nor to put the poison and the seaweed together in such a way that it took the forensic scientists days to figure it out. She was after all, just barely graduated from high school, even if her finger print was on one of the glasses at the motel. The time she ended up spending in court was eye opening for her, and it gave her impetus to learn how to shoot a gun, just in case. When she went to apply for shooting lessons, passing her written test so that she can get a gun license in future, there was still no reason to turn her down – she hasn’t officially been charged with anything, not even a parking ticket.
Cira was brought in for questioning, to be sure, and she ran across Josh Parker at that time, mostly because Josh made sure to be there. He had a few things to say for her, upset because he believed she destroyed his plan to defeat Bob Redman just by living really. It’s not a rational anger that Josh feels, since it’s his testimony that has partly kept Cira out of trouble. Still, he absolutely detests her, because Bob Redman was trying to use her as a tool, and she got in his way. Josh is certain he’d have Redman’s job now, if not for Cira.
Of course, Cira had no idea what he was talking about at the time, and she still really doesn’t, except that the man was in a rage, and obviously believed that Cira was responsible for something going wrong. She knew she’d found a dead body, but until after her talk with the police, she didn’t realize that she was a suspect. Well, not really. After all, she’d never met Leeza – that was something Bob had never managed to set up.
With all that was going on, she still accepted the job offered her by L’Etoile Circus, and began studying in earnest to be an acrobat and a tightrope walker. She performed in the trapeze show more often than not, as she honed her skills over the course of the next two years. Solara was born, and Cira stopped using the name her mother gave her, except under extreme circumstances like dealing with government officials.
Her brush with the police shocked her whole family, including both Quinn and Hawk, though they supported her through everything. Her father had to remain somewhat removed during this time, and the whole murder frame has put a strain on that relationship, as Daniel is somewhat worried that Cira might be taking after her mother too much, despite his attempts at keeping her stable. Yolanda has been arguing in Cira’s favour, trying to talk Daniel into seeing sense. Solara, for her part, is out to clear her name, if ever she can figure out how. Certainly, this isn’t something she advertises, and since the headlines died down over a year ago, folks don’t even connect her with the mysterious death of the hooker.
She did learn how to use a gun though, as previously mentioned. She passed her written test, with help from Quinn, since Hawk refused to help her learn how to destroy anything. (Hawk doesn’t really like guns, feeling they’re cold and merciless killing tools.) She took lessons throughout her time at L’Etoile, shaken by her close call, and she still goes to the practice range when she has a chance. In addition, she never did give up on her martial arts lessons, continuing with them, while many other girls her age went out on dates or shopping at the mall. About the only thing she regrets about those martial arts lessons is that she can’t take them with Quinn any more – she’s not home often enough to stick with her initial dojo. It means she hasn’t raised in the ranks as quickly as she might otherwise have, but she’s still very proud of her brown belt. Quinn, with his black belt, teases her about it on occasion, which always makes Hawk roll his eyes. Course, his black belt is even higher than Quinn’s, so you know, he isn’t really in any position to talk. He’s in law school currently, just starting his first year, while Quinn is working his way through medical school by working in the local strip club as a bouncer. Hawk has managed to get help from Daniel, since he’s chosen the same profession as his Dad, so he’s lucky enough to not need to work while studying.
Bob Redman won the next election, though it was a close call, with Josh Parker being a very close second. Josh despises Cira, as much as she despises him, though Cira goes out of her way to avoid Josh, something that’s easy enough since the two frequent completely different circles. Bob might not avoid Cira, but she’s now too old for his tastes, and frankly, he got what he wanted, so he doesn’t really care about her any more.
Quinn and Hawk have stayed in touch with Solara, though her association with the rest of her family has come to a complete end. She’s not been actually disowned yet, but the possibility exists, if she doesn’t straighten up and get out of the circus. She doesn’t see Quinn or Hawk very often, but they do still have good times when they do get together, about once every three or four months, or when the circus comes to town. It’s about that often that Solara sees Yolanda, and maybe once every six months over the past two years that she’s seen her father.
After about 2 years with L’Etoile, Solara’s reputation among the circus folk was growing, as was her skill, aided by a natural talent. This is when she met Andre Faw, who offered her a better paying job with Le Cirque, an offer she accepted only two weeks ago, almost to the very day.
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no subject
Date: 2003-06-16 06:08 am (UTC)Cool...
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Date: 2003-06-16 07:42 am (UTC)Alrighty then. Why am I not surprised, hmm?
(And what happened to all the apostrophes in this thing? It certainly looks odd in my in-box!)
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Date: 2003-06-16 07:25 pm (UTC)I have no idea...
no subject
Date: 2003-06-16 08:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-17 06:49 am (UTC)Go figure.
*grin* Not, I'm sure, that you actually needed or wanted the technical explaination. (I'm bored, what can I say?)
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Date: 2003-06-17 06:54 am (UTC)Oh, yeah. That's what it was, and it does look fine in the post. It's just when it came into my email, to reply back to you - somehow that first time it didn't know what to do with it.
Strange but true.
And if you're plotting, how can you be bored?
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Date: 2003-06-17 07:08 am (UTC)I'm at work. Even plotting, it's possible to be bored at work. At least, it is when I have to set plotting aside to actually do work.
Maybe I should become a professional writer... *snickers*
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Date: 2003-06-17 07:10 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-06-17 07:12 am (UTC)Writers don't often get paid near enough to live on.
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Date: 2003-06-17 07:16 am (UTC)Pain that. Oh well, we can always write in our spare time.
Which reminds me - you could always help out with the heroestales posts, add in details that Alery and I missed ... from Alexa's pov?
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Date: 2003-06-17 07:26 am (UTC)*grin* Might as well give Jewel the full story... whoever she is. ;p
no subject
Date: 2003-06-17 07:31 am (UTC)Indeed, though I'm not done yet from Solara's - So you know, don't feel you need to be in a rush. I've started working on Part 6. Should get Dan the amulet and rescue Bronson in that section. ;)
Which will leave me with the apothecary and the transporter for 7, so I can do the final battle in Part 8. Along with whatever little nuggets I can remember.
I did suggest to both Pam and Val that they should add in stuff I've missed. Like oh, what happened when Solara wasn't there!
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Date: 2003-06-17 07:54 am (UTC)Have to see if they do, neh?
Fun story, btw.
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Date: 2003-06-17 08:29 am (UTC)Thanks. I'm having fun with it from Solara's pov. It's interesting all in all. ;)
Oh, and
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Date: 2003-06-17 09:15 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-06-17 09:17 am (UTC)That's what I told him, but well, it's your community.
Smuck him upside the head for me?
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Date: 2003-06-17 10:52 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-06-17 11:06 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-06-17 11:10 am (UTC)