Alexandra Montgomery @ When Darkness Falls

[dan1hart1ey]

Alexandra E. Montgomery
another jagged edge


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APPEARANCE Screaming on the inside. I am frail and withered Cover up the wounds that I can't hide. HEIGHT | 5' 5" WEIGHT | 130 lbs EYES | Grey w/ flecks of blue HAIR | Long, Blonde, naturally wavy Lexi doesn't particularly think of herself in terms of pretty or fashionable or anything of the sort. In fact, when it comes to her clothes, she's much more prone to purchase something because it's simple and comfortable. She's not looking for that something to grab someone's attention, nor is she looking to impress any individual. Given her evening job of bartending, she does ensure that she has a sufficient amount of appropriately nice clothing, but it's simply to boost her tips. The clothes rarely see anything but the inside of The Pink Door. When she's not at work, Lexi is usually somewhere on campus and she's certainly not looking to doll herself up. It's at these times you can usually find her in a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and her favourite leather bomber jacket (a gift from her brother). The only thing that Lexi is concerned with when it comes to her appearance is her hair. It's like a security blanket for her and has been since she was a child. When she doesn't wish to interact with people or simply wants to retreat into her own thoughts, she'll gladly throw in some earphones, and let her hair down so she can bow her head and hide behind the thick curtain of it. Getting a haircut, for Lexi, really is traumatic. She's very persistent that they only ever take off two inches and will watch the stylist like a hawk until the task is complete. If she didn't need to get a trim every now and again, she wouldn't go at all. Looking in the mirror, Lexi doesn't particularly think that there is anything that stands out as distinguishing. She's pretty average for the most part; short, blonde, and an average weight. Nothing too exciting. She does, however, have two tattoos. The first is located on the inside of her right wrist and is the roman numerals for her brother's birthday. The second can be found in between her shoulder blades and depicts a set of wings with the words "Alis volat propriis" which translates to "She flies with her own wings". Neither of which were gotten simply for the purpose of getting a tattoo. Both have significant meaning to her. PB | Katie Cassidy [1] [2] [3] PERSONALITY Walls that lie between us, the saint within the sinner I have lost the nerve, but it's alright. LIKES | purple, greek yogurt with honey, coffee (of any sort), rock music, trying to figure out the human mind, the smell of old books, silence, pineapple, terribly unhealthy foods, the mountains, snow, cats, the noise of the city at night DISLIKES | the color orange, cigarette smoke, the other people using the public transit system (mostly those who can't take earphones as a hint!), overly confident men, vodka, the texture of coconut, the smell of cantaloupe, rap music, large dogs, pick up lines, blonde jokes, people who say that there are no stupid questions (cause that's a lie), gory movies, crowded spaces, touching people Lexi doesn't come across as the easiest person to read, but she really isn't that hard of a person to figure you out if you want to take the time to. A lot of her personality traits stems from two separate occasions in her life. The first was the gradual appearance of her Clairsentient abilities. This wasn't something that she simply woke up with one day, but developed over several years. At first it was merely brief unsubstantial flashes when she bumped into another person, before it gradually increased to a series of images. For a long time, she thought she was losing her mind. It didn't help that neither of her parents had any sort of psychic abilities. Her gift stemmed from further down the line. Her teenage years were full of confusion, medication, and visits to the shrink. Because of this, she has a tendency to second guess herself and pull away from human contact. She's not comfortable with her abilities and more often than not, they frighten her. The second event was the car accident and subsequent death of her brother. Lexi carries a lot of guilt over this and has a hard time connecting with other people. She tends to get lost in her own head, particularly when she feels that she's growing attached to an individual. The fear of losing another person close to her is very real and one that she's had difficulty overcoming. Even studying psychology and the working of the mind hasn't helped her overcome this. She understands the reasoning behind it, but hasn't been able to work past it. If one is able to get past all of the negative aspects of her personality, they'd find someone who actually enjoys laughing and is very protective and supportive of her friends and family. It might not seem like it, particularly with her leaving her parents with little word between them, but even in her own mind she's sure that leaving was what was best for them. She cares deeply for those closest to her, which makes the thought of losing them all the harder. Pushing people away has become somewhat of a mechanism to dealing with that fear. When it comes to dating, Lexi isn't exactly known for it. Ultimately, Lexi is particularly attracted to older men. Of course, the fact that this is clearly a subconscious desire for a closer relationship with her father (and that thought freaks her out like nothing else) she tends to steer clear of them for her own mental stability ... even if an older man is the sort of person she might need to counterbalance her personality and character flaws. HISTORY Carry the wounded and shut your eyes. All will be forgiven, and none will rise. Whether or not it comes as a surprise, Lexi was born during one of the coldest nights of the year. Dark, snowy, and cold was what lurked outside the warm hospital that night. Unlike the little brother that would soon follow her, Lexi's conception had not been planned ... well, it had been planned to an extent. It had just happened a few years prior to the original date. Still, Steven and Rachelle Montgomery were thrilled to have such an adorable and healthy start to their family. This happiness was tested several times over the next few years, as Lexi turned out to be the sort of child that made you worry when they were quiet. It was always those moments of quiet when things got turned upside down ... quite literally. Despite the workout their daughter gave them on a regular basis, the two welcomed a son four short years after Lexi's birth. For the entire nine months of the pregnancy, Lexi was thrilled with the idea of having a little brother in the house to play with. It was a common sight in the Montgomery household for Lexi to sit with her mother and talk to the bump in the woman's stomach, depicting all the fun things the two of them would do. The fact that he would be a mere infant was not a thought she harbored. Of course, with that being said, she was sorely disappointed when suddenly her Mother and Father had a little baby to look after. Instead of the fun little brother, she'd been hoping for, she'd been gifted with a crying, smelly baby who took all the attention. It wasn't long before Lexi's jealousy made it's presence quite clear. For weeks, Lexi acted out. She knocked over the babies things, woke him up from his naps, hid his bottles, and anything else she could to make her parents see that they really didn't need another baby. With nothing left to try, Rachelle started to ask Lexi to help her with Ben. It's amazing how the terms "big girl", "important", and "responsibility" can change a child's outlook. Suddenly, Ben wasn't some thing taking all of her parents attention. Suddenly, she was a big girl who had the task of looking after her little brother. It made her feel special and included. Ultimately, it worked. The retaliation against Ben stopped and as they aged together, the bond between them grew. In the next several years, it was difficult to find one without the other being too far away. Unlike a lot of siblings, they had their moments of bickering and irritation, but it never lasted long and it certainly didn't affect their close relationship. They had each others backs through everything. Not everything for the family was perfect, however. As Lexi entered High School, things began to change for her. She increasingly found herself experiencing terrible headaches, the sort that left you in the dark with a cold compress for hours. They weren't the sort of throbbing headaches that most people complained about, instead it was a pressure at her temples that felt like it was burrowing back behind her eyes. She went to the doctors several times, but they only ever chalked it up to migraines and gave her the appropriate medication to control them. Needless to say, the medication did very little to prevent them. The headaches came and went over the course of an entire year before she started to have problems with her vision. At first, she didn't realize what was causing it. All she knew was that from time to time she'd get these sudden flashes, almost like memories, except none of them were familiar. Over time as it increased and the images became more substantial, she realized that it happened only when she came into contact with another person. As one can expect of a sixteen year old, the first thing Lexi tried to do was ignore it in the hopes that perhaps it would simply stop. When it didn't, she moved to thinking that perhaps there was something wrong with her. Fearing that she was going crazy, she mentioned the problem first to Ben and then her parents. While Ben believed her, he didn't really know what to make of it, being only 12 at the time. Her parents were not so willing to believe her. For months they brushed it off, assuming that the way Lexi pulled away from people was nothing more than teenage rebellion. All teenagers went through it and they were sure that Lexi would grow out of it. The problem, however, was that it got worse and there was no sign of it stopping. Unsure what else to do when their daughter mentioned seeing flashes of people's lives when she touched them, they set her up with a Psychiatrist that she would be forced to continue to see in the hopes of curing whatever was wrong with her. Nothing seemed to work. It didn't matter how many times Lexi explained what happened or answered the woman's questions, nothing changed. They tried putting her on various forms of medication, some not so nice, and nothing seemed to work. After three years of this process, Lexi simply learned to handle the flashes. She fixed a smile on her face and pretended that everything was better. She accepted the prescription they gave her and pretended that it had worked, only to systematically drop the medication down the bathroom sink every morning. It was easier to keep it to herself. By the time Lexi reached twenty years old, her life was getting back to normal. The flashes still occurred regularly, whenever she touched another person, but she'd learned to deal with it. The headaches had receded, only forcing her into bed on rare occasions. She was unable to shake the dislike of being close to others, but for the most part, she gradually returned to her old self. Her parents, much to Lexi's disappointment, were relieved that they no longer had to face the reality of Lexi's strange abilities. It was clear to her that she was quite different from them. Ben, however, didn't care one way or another if Lexi could see through lead walls. He was often the one constant in her life. The one person who didn't look at her like she'd lost her mind. She was still just Lexi to him and that's all she wanted to be. Then in the early fall of 2007, Lexi and Ben had headed out to see a movie. It had become a bit of a tradition for them to hang out one Saturday a month, just the two of them. They each had their own sets of friends and interests, but that didn't matter. To this day, Lexi can't remember what movie the two of them had seen. All she can remember is the ride home. They had been four blocks from their home when a drunk driver ran through a light and hit them on the passengers side. The two of them had been laughing at some comment Ben had made moments before the sound of metal scrapping against metal, tires scrapping against the pavement, and shattering glass blocked everything out. Lexi vaguely remembers bits a pieces of the ambulance ride. The one thing she does remember, however, was being confused and asking for Ben. It wasn't until much later that she'd discovered what had happened. Lexi woke later to her mother crying and her Father telling her in a flat tone that her brother had been killed. It wasn't instant pain or grief as one would assume, but rather a numbness. It took days before it really hit her. Returning home sealed the deal for her. It just felt empty and distant. Even her parents felt distant and she couldn't blame them. Perhaps if she'd been paying more attention none of this would have happened. Unable to talk to either of her parents about it, Lexi blamed herself and it wasn't long at all before she ran. Enrolled in the pre-med program at the University of Denver, Lexi dropped out. She didn't go to the registrars office or officially remove herself from the school. She simply stopped going. She didn't care. She simply wanted out. A fresh start. Perhaps with that she'd be able to work through some of the guilt she felt. So packing her bags, she bought the first bus ticket she could get. She had no real destination in mind, as most do when they're running from something. Climbing onto the bus she didn't bother even reading the marquee. Eventually, she found herself reaching the end of the line; New Orleans. Originally, she had no plans to stay, but one thing led to another and she found herself working and maintaining a life. Without realizing it, she'd settled in the city. As it turned out, running didn't help the guilt. It only made it worse. The problem now, however, was that she couldn't return and face her parents. Whether she'd meant to or not, she'd successfully cut herself off from her old life and had somewhat forged a beginning in a strange city. Knowing she needed a better career than simply bartending, Lexi enrolled into the University of New Orleans. Rather than returning to the pre-med program, she turned her attention to Psychology. She had enough of her own issues that she was sure the knowledge would be helpful in more ways than one. Unwilling to contact her parents for money, Lexi has been working full-time as well as going to school in order to keep her head above water. It's stressful from time to time, but she thrives on the stress. If she's stressed about that, her thoughts are silent and her memories take a break from haunting her. Even as she had no plans to stay, Lexi has no plans on uprooting herself again. WRITING SAMPLES Gather the broken and leave this life Lying in the Earth, side by side THIRD PERSON | It didn't matter how much Lexi told herself that what had happened with Craig didn't bother her. She could walk around all day with a strong wall built up around her, but it crumbled the moment she closed her eyes and that frustrated her beyond anything she'd ever known. It wasn't as though Craig had succeeded in taking from her what he'd wanted. There were hundreds of people out there who weren't so lucky. It made her stomach turn to admit to her situation having been a big deal. It shouldn't be. She was fine. That's the way it should have been, right? Of course, that didn't stop the dreams. A lot of the time, she could handle them. A brief moment of panic when she woke and it was gone. A few deep breaths and she was ready to move on. Every once in a while, however, waking up from them wasn't so easy. It'd been weeks since the last one and she'd honestly thought they'd stopped, but she should have known better. She didn't have such luck. Darkness had wrapped it's silky tendrils around her, pulling her down and away from everything she tried to cling to. The feeling of hands grabbing at her, tugging her down, were only compounded with the images of Will, her brother, and finally Dean turning their backs to her and allowing her to slip further into the void until there was nothing left but Craig's triumphant smirk. He'd been right all along. Who would want to stay with her unless they were getting something in return? There was no one but him. She belonged to him and there was nothing to stop that. Finally, as a hand came from behind her to clamp over her mouth and dragged her backwards, Lexi woke with a strangled cry, her limbs tangled in the sheets, her hair sticking to her damp forehead, and an intense need to not be alone all but suffocating her. Untangling herself from the sheets, she barely gave the clock on the nightstand a glance. Her fear didn't care that it was after one o'clock in the morning, nor did it care that Dean was probably sound sleeping. She was still trying to convince herself that Dean hadn't disappeared. Dressed in her usual sleepwear of a pair of boy shorts and one of Dean's t-shirts, she moved quickly from her room and to Dean's door. She didn't knock, she barely even breathed as she let herself into the room, the door hanging open behind her as her eyes found the familiar form on the bed. Finding him there sent an almost overwhelming rush of relief through her. She didn't want to admit to it, but the thought of being alone terrified her. More so than anything else. FIRST PERSON | [Private: Self] Do you ever get the feeling that no one is really listening? Not to me, per say, just listening in general. People talk and it makes no sense and has absolutely no affect on the world around them. I don't even think they're listening to what they're saying. They're simply speaking in order to appear like a regular functioning member of society. You're suppose to go out and talk to people, interact, socialize ... or something. If you don't you're ... well, you end up with a permanent prescription. Then again, if you're not on an anti-depressant you're among the minority. Well, at least I'm among the minority for once. [Private: Fellow Pink Door Workers] Anyone willing to cover a closing shift on Wednesday? It's not a big deal or anything ... just want to spend a little more time on some papers. [Public] Sometimes I reconsider my choices in life. Damn school. Don't do anything about them, of course, but I reconsider them.

A Jagged Edge we can make it out alive NAME | Alexandra Elizabeth Montgomery ALIAS/NICKNAME | Lexi CURRENT AGE | 25 years old DATE OF BIRTH | 23 February 1987 PLACE OF BIRTH | Denver, Colorado SPECIES | Gifted Human | Clairsentience ABILITIES | Is able to see flashes of an individual's history through physical touch. WEAKNESSES | Is unable to control (short of never touching another person) when she sees or what she sees. MARITAL STATUS | Single SEXUALITY | Heterosexual OCCUPATION | Student / Bartender @ The Pink Door CURRENT RESIDENCE | Small apartment close to campus SCHOOL | University of New Orleans AREA OF STUDY | Psychology (BA) THE FAMILY Steven Daniel Montgomery | Father | Lexi hasn't seen her Father in roughly four years. They have never had a really close relationship, but what they did have became rather strained after Ben's death. Lexi feels that her father blames her for her brother's death even if he denied it. Rachelle Lynn Montgomery | Mother | Unlike her relationship with her Father, Lexi was always really close to her mother and she misses the older woman badly. Unfortunately, every time she thinks about going home all she can remember is watching her Mother at Ben's funeral and the thought of facing the guilt scares her. Benjamin Ryan Montgomery | Brother (d. 2007)| Lexi and Ben were really close growing up and Lexi rather enjoyed being the big sister. Unfortunately, Ben was killed in a car accident. Lexi was driving but survived the accident. RANDOM FACTS • Blames herself for her brother's death and her intense guilt keeps her far from where she grew up ... particularly from her parents who (she's certain) blame her for Ben's death. • Originally wanted to go into Pre-Med, but went into Psychology instead. • While her family is more than capable of footing the bills for her education, Lexi does not ask them for money. While she has difficulty sometimes managing to stay on top of everything, she works in order to pay for her schooling. • Has a hard time keeping relationships, as she spends a lot of her time in her own head. • After her accident, Lexi let her license expire and has not sat behind the wheel since. These days she's gotten used to using public means of transportation ... she also does a lot of walking. • Has an intense dislike for the colour orange. She can't tell you why, she just hates it. She won't even eat anything that's orange. That's right. No carrots, orange cheese, oranges, orange peppers, nothing. ✖ ✖ ✖ OOC NAME | Dani AGE | 25 AIM | dan1hart1ey EMAIL | d.alkenbrack@gmail.com AVAILABILITY | Evenings and Weekends TIMEZONE | GMT-5 (EST) SONG CREDIT | Into the Morning - Breaking Benjamin