Aidan Bradley
History
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Family

Janice Ellison, who later became Maeve O'Reilly, went to San Francisco with Alex Burdgess. They did not marry, but remained together in an open relationship to raise the daughter they conceived at Balador. (This information is only pertinent as Maeve O'Reilly was another of my characters)

Their daughter, Nuala, took her mother's last name. Maeve was Nuala's mentor when she Awoke. Nuala met a man named Ryan Fletcher at a Chantry, and they married and lived near San Francisco. They had four children: Sean; Michael; Bridget, who they sometimes called Bridie; and Mary. Sean and Bridie were both Awakened, and Sean's mentor was his father, while Bridie's was her mother.

Mary moved to L.A. to become an actress. She was never very famous, but did gain some small fame in TV shows and one or two small roles in not-very-well-known movies. She met Nathan Bradley in one of these movies; he was also a small-time actor. They dated for a while, and then married. Nathan knows nothing about the Awakened, while Mary knows something, about it from a mother, father, brother, sister and a set of grandparents. They had one daughter, whom they named Aidan.

Nathan Bradley grew up in a very small town in Southern California. His father was an alcoholic who occasionally beat his family. His mother did all she could to help her three children out, and she sent Nathan to live with her brother, Joseph, and he was the one who helped Nathan start acting. Nathan sends his mother money, occasionally, and urges her to leave his father and come live with him in L.A. often, but she refuses. Jonathan is trying to quit drinking, going to A.A. meetings, and she feels that their marriage can survive if she doesn't quit on him.

Aidan Bradley grew up well-off and somewhat spoiled, for her parents believed in giving their daughter the best. (Probably Mary felt that she had been somewhat less than her Mage siblings, although Nuala and Ryan would be shocked if they heard her say that; and Mary probably feels that she wants to give her daughter the love and attention she feels she never had ... Nathan also probably feels abandoned and unloved, due to his father)
Her parents bought her anything she asked for, and let her do anything she wanted, on the idea that experience is the greatest gift they could give her. However, she was seen as spoiled by her classmates at school, and while she had many hangers-on at school who wanted to take advantage of her, she had few friends.

Mentor

On July 23, 1997, just before Aidan turned 17, her great-grandmother Maeve died. (Alex died shortly after Aidan was born, and he never saw her) She and her family went to San Francisco for the funeral. While there, she met Darcy MacColl, a good friend of Sean's daughter, Callia. (He was 20 at the time) He was about to start his third year of college at UCLA in the fall, but he had been home for the summer, visiting his family and friends. During the week her family was there, Aidan and Darcy became friends, and made plans to hang out when he moved back to L.A.
They became very good friends when he moved back to Southern California. Darcy introduced Aidan to Neo-Paganism, and gave her some training in magick as well as in self-awareness for several years. She proved to be a difficult student. Perhaps feeling restrained by what Darcy told her she could or could not do, she occasionally ignored Darcy's assignments and did either too much or not enough. Occasionally she would neglect to come to her lessons, even when she had done exactly as she had been asked. When she got too out of line, Darcy would threaten her with a refusal to continue teaching someone who "obviously doesn't want to learn". That usually brought her back to doing what she was supposed to, for a time.

After High School

Aidan and Darcy dated a little in L.A., but mostly their relationship was teacher-to-student. When Aidan graduated from high school, she decided to go to UCLA. Her parents promised to support her in her career choice, and she wanted to study art, like Darcy, but ended up studying Creative Writing with an aim to be a novelist.
Meanwhile, Darcy was selling his paintings and gaining some slight local fame.

The summer after Aidan graduated from UCLA, in July 2002, she Awakened in a ritual she was doing with Darcy. She saw her Avatar and chose a name to be used for Magick. Darcy then became her Mentor, teaching her about the Mage world and Magick. She also got her tattoo at this time; due to her name and her avatar, she decided a sun would be appropriate.
Over the next couple weeks, Darcy began explaining to her the Mage community, and the Technocracy, and everything else. He also told her that most of her family in San Francisco were Mages.
This led to her only conversation with her mother about Mages. Her mother had been very insistent that her family not tell her daughter anything about the Mage world, and they had complied, because she was family, and it was somewhat easy for them, because Mary and her family lived so far away from her parents and siblings.
Aidan wanted to know why she hadn't known about this until just now, did her father know, any many, many more questions, which her mother never was able to answer to Aidan's satiafaction.
Shortly after her 22nd birthday, on August 12, 2002, Aidan had her first Avatar dream. She awoke feeling that moving to San Francisco was the right thing to do. She told Darcy she wished to join a larger community of Mages, to make allies and learn about Magick and the Technocracy from many people. She did not tell Darcy about her dream.
She and Darcy got into several rather large arguments about her decision. He thought it was silly to move, since there were plenty of Mages in L.A., and no real Mage community anywhere. Besides all this, he was not willing to leave L.A., where he was making a living with his art, and he wanted Aidan with him for more than just a Mentor / student relationship. He did not tell her this.
They argued for about a month, and when Aidan started getting dreams every night that made her wake up sweating from the heat of Blaize's flames, she finally packed up a few suitcases and drove to San Francisco, telling her parents she was going to stay with her aunt Bridie for a while.
She had refused to talk to Darcy for about a week before she moved, and he didn't find out she was gone for another two weeks after this.
He tried calling her, but she refused to take his calls or call him back.
She eventually moved into the Rose Hill Chantry and began to focus on Magick, writing, and learning the ropes of her new life.

Around mid-December (2002), Darcy stopped calling her. He tried to forget her, because he knew the strength of her pride. He started dating a girl named Jennifer Coplin in January (2003) that he met through some artist friends. She was a Sleeper, and he hid his true nature from her.
They dated for almost a year, and were starting to get quite serious. However, one day in November (2003) Darcy found a picture of him and Aidan that he hadn't gotten rid of, had forgotten about completely, and everything came back. By the end of the week, he'd packed everything into his car, and driven up to San Francisco, leaving a note for Jennifer, telling her he was leaving, but not where to or really why, just that he had to go.

In San Francisco

He found her fairly easily, for he had been friends with her family in San Francisco, and her cousin, Callia, told him where Aidan was staying. Aidan's welcome was much better than he'd expected, for she had missed him, too, for all that she would never quite say it.
They made love that night, and Darcy began to hope that maybe they could start dating seriously, for he knew he was falling in love with her. However, she was not interested in serious dating of any kind.
He moved into the Chantry in a room near hers, and settled for being her best friend and occasional lover. For now.

Now, she is working on writing in earnest and while she hasn't sold anything yet, she is getting somewhat more positive feedback from editors than in the past.
Darcy has begun selling his art in San Francisco, and he has expanded his medium a bit, to include charcoal and sketches, among other things.

Call me a bloody bitch - I am all that and more. But I can look in the mirror and say that I have lived. Can you, with your illusions of comfort, say the same?