Mun Name: Shellebelle
Contact info: AIM shellebelle093 e-mail: shellebelle93@yahoo.com
Character Name: Angela Mercy
Fandom: Original Character
Age/Point in canon: 17
Journal: angel_mercy
Played-by: Dominique Swain
Original Character Bio:
I. Baby Girl Doe
She was found abandoned on a bench next to a hospital in Los Angeles, wrapped in a warm blanket, clean and diapered. She had obviously been cared for. A hospital maintainance worker found her and brought her inside. The tiny baby wasn't more than a few days old, her head was covered with pale, downy hair, and her back was covered with soft, downy hair of purest white. The nurses named her Angela because to them, she seemed like a perfect angel, so pale and perfect. Despite news reports and announcements, no one came forward to claim the child. Soon, child welfare took over her care.
Despite her adverse conditions, the child grew, graceful, tall, and strong. She had red-gold hair and blue eyes. The soft, downy hair on her back soon grew to resemble feathers. And then, other strange things began to happen.
II. The Winged Girl
Around age 12, the wings began to grow. Soon, Angela had to adjust her clothing to accommodate the quickly growing wings. The other children in the orphanage and at school began to tease her and call her a freak, pulling feathers from her wings, blood spattering the white feathers. The counselors tried their best to prevent or curtail the mocking and teasing, but there was little they could do.
She was miserable. And one night, she stood up on the roof of the orphanage and jumped.
And flew.
Once she found she could fly, she flew all the time. What could the counselors do? She was now thirteen years old, and *fast*. They couldn't catch her. And she didn't have to talk if she were flying. She came back to the orphanage to sleep, puddling pillows and blankets on the bed and making a nest, so as not to have to try and sleep flat. When she wanted to hide, she hid in her wings if she couldn't fly.
By fourteen, the counselors were at their wits' end. She had withdrawn almost completely from the other children, and rarely went to school. They began to push hard for an adoptive family. When one showed up, they couldn't believe their luck. So what if the couple were in their fifties, and had never had a child before? They seemed genuinely concerned about the girl who was so closed off she barely seemed human any longer.
Marge and Anthony brought the girl home--or at least, to what Marge considered home-- to a convent. Anthony was the priest of the local church and Marge was Mother Superior of the convent. They called Angela a true sign from heaven and kept her cloistered--and clipped her wings, so she couldn't fly anymore.
She sunk down into misery, only rousing when they wanted her somewhere, to make some "miraculous sign". They used her and kept her wings clipped, and there she stayed, growing more and more depressed by the day. It was difficult for her to speak, having spent so long flying away from people who might hurt her, but eventually, she spoke, to the other nuns, to the man and woman who had posed as married in order to adopt her. Eventually, once she realized that although they were severely misguided, they didn't try to hurt her at all, she relaxed and bided her time.
At age seventeen, she began to refuse to submit to having her wings clipped. She was strong and could overpower most of the nuns. But she did not fly away. She needed to plan. And she did so, very carefully.
One night, she disguised herself in a nun's habit, packed a small bag, and left the convent at meal time. They did not realize that she was missing until the priest came in to hear her confession later that.
III. Survival
Though she was lonely, at least she was free. The nun's habit covered her wings adequately and bought her sympathy for the short time she wore it. Eventually, she acquired a long, full coat that would cover her wings, and she kept moving, place to place, sleeping in trees or abandoned buildings wrapped in her strong wings. For a year, she traveled, to throw off the trail of those who wanted to find her again.
Finally, she flew down further South, where she lived in a wooded area. She found a shack to make into a home. She asked for work as a dishwasher in a small restaurant in a small hill town. Now eighteen, the girl finally began to make a life for herself. Eventually, she was able to rent a small room in a boarding house. She once again made her nest in bed and finally was able to relax.
It was still a lonely life, and she kept her wings covered up most of the time, not wishing to draw attention to herself. She missed the convent, but needed her freedom. And still, she was painfully shy.
But at least she was free.