clarissaolsen-archive

[clarissaolsen-archive]

“I’ll admit I’m not really an expert on mothers but it depends on what she likes I think? In the worst case, you could always call up a local florist, drop some money on flowers and make the note deliver the bad news. It might lighten the blow a bit.” Clarissa couldn’t really guess generic mother presents, Belle would probably get her something cute like fun scrubs she really couldn’t wear on the floor, or new medical supplies. She still used the pink stethoscope Logan let Belle pick out for her last year, but she doubted that would help him pick what he was going to get for his mother. “That or you could send her something you know she’d like. For example my dad is really into linguistic maps, I’d pick a country and time period combination he doesn’t already have on his walls and get one commissioned of that if I needed an apology gift.” Although she couldn’t imagine not spending Christmas with her dad, she was actually looking forward to picking him up from the airport for the holidays. It felt like it’d been too long since he last visited. “So if you notice she’s really into jewelry, or cookbooks, or something, you could just get her more of that thing.”

— location: streets of san francisco — date and time: any day of the weekend — availability: open | @goldencitystarters​ (4/5)

“Okay, so… if you were to choose between one of these options,” Malik pointed at the stores in front of them to his company for that day, “which one do you think I could find the best gift to send over to my mother with a little note saying: ‘I won’t be there for Christmas, hope you have a nice time with the rest of the family. Love you.’? Finally he turned to face them, “call me Grinch, but even the winter holidays’ decoration around the city is a reminder of days that I don’t want to go through again. Not a big fan of… all of this. But, anyway, I need help shopping, so give me some light, please!” 

[clarissaolsen-archive]

There was so much to do today, last minute Christmas shopping, driving Ella to ballet, trying to spend as much time as she could with Belle before she had to try to get some sleep before her overnight shift. At least they’d given her a bit more than ten hours this time, it’d give her a chance to slow down and take a breath if she needed one. It’d have been easy for Clarissa to have missed the girl, so focused on everything she’d needed to do. But something gave her pause as the person tried multiple times to get the attention of anyone.

Lost, most likely new to San Francisco if she had to guess. And so, she stops. “Is everything alright? Do you need help?” She asked. She could stop, help give her instructions and direct her wherever she was going. She still had plenty of time, and in the worst case she supposed if she started cutting it close she could always ask Logan to go to the store later and Venmo him the money before he could insist on covering the bill. 

He’d rather she stopped to help someone anyway, knowing him. “I’ve only been here two years so I’m still finding my way around, but if you need directions I can try to point you where you need to go. I’m Clarissa.”

— location: streets of sanfran — time: tuesday, dec 13th, around noon — open starter: @goldencitystarters​

“Hey, could y— ” Marnie tried asking someone nearby for help with directions, but they gave her a side eye and continued walking. “Hi! Sir, wou— ”, ignored again, though this time they turned completely. She’d never been in a city so large in her entire life. Hell, she’d never even left the midwest. People just weren’t the same here. “I’m looking for —,” nope. The biggest city she’d ever seen before was Omaha, and people, well, they were still Nebraskan there. Back home, where she could smile at every single person she made eye contact with and it was never weird, never met with an odd look or a glare. There, it seemed like somehow, the only real mean people were bigots, who were too ashamed or reserved or cowardly to actually say shit out loud (although online was a whole other story). Everyone else, though… they were polite, kind, and helpful. Always.

The culture shock she had here, she wasn’t ready for. It’s not that people weren’t kind, necessarily, they just… didn’t have the time of day or enough care in them to stop and help a stranger. It was different, that’s for sure. 

“Can anybody help me?” she said to no one at all, sighing. 

[clarissaolsen-archive]

Honestly, Clarissa was exhausted. Maybe today was finally her day off, but just getting off a thirty hour shift never left her the most energetic. She’d be fine after she got some coffee in her. She’d run her errands, and catch a nap before Logan left for work. Manageable, especially considering she had more than ten hours to get everything done. And maybe it was her exhaustion that resulted in her bumping into Gemma. “Don't worry about it! I’m sorry too. That was probably my fault, honestly. I haven’t gotten much sleep. I just worked 30 hours so I’m a bit out of it right now." It didn't help that this rotation was one of the rougher ones, maybe she got a strategic nap in during a quiet hour but she'd be glad when she got moved to unit again. If she was going to have to lie about going over her eighty hours weekly average, it was going to be this round. Still, all of it would be worth it in a couple years - she just needed to keep reminding herself of that. “I’m okay, though. Are you alright?”

Gisele looked as tired as she felt, and with it being nutcracker season Clarissa wasn't surprised. She was probably working on the preparations as hard as she had been last night. "Do you need another coffee? I was debating grabbing a second so I can get it while I'm over there." She offers. It was the least she could do for bumping into her, after all.

𝙾𝙿𝙴𝙽 𝚂𝚃𝙰𝚁𝚃𝙴𝚁: @goldencitystarters ( 0/? ) 𝙻𝙾𝙲𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽: SOME COFFEE SHOP

𝐀𝐇, 𝐍𝐔𝐓𝐂𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐎𝐍. 𝐈𝐓 was the best of times and the worst of times for the overworked woman, trying her hardest to keep herself afloat by running on coffee and a prayer. Today after acquiring her first ( maybe second? ) latte of the day -- her eyes scanned across the coffee shop as she made her way for the door, not realizing she would collide with someone. Thank god neither drink didn't spill. "My goodness.. I'm so, so sorry, darling. Are you alright? I must have been in another universe.."

[clarissaolsen-archive]

PSD by Lupus Australis, Graphic made by Cat

{ BRYANA HOLLY | TWENTY-EIGHT | CIS WOMAN﹜  welcome to san francisco, CLARISSA OLSEN! just to make sure, you go by SHE/HERS, right? okay, great. i just have a few questions for you before i can let you go..  how long have you been here for? TWO YEARS. where are you currently living? SOMA. what’s your current occupation? SURGICAL RESIDENT of THE UCSF GENERAL SURGERY RESIDENCY PROGRAM. what’s your dream occupation? PEDIATRIC SURGEON. wow! interesting. is there a secret that we can keep between you and i? HER DAUGHTER ISN’T ACTUALLY HER BIOLOGICAL CHILD. lastly, this is a bit of a random question but … what’s your favorite song? EVERYTHING MATTERS by AURORA & that’s all they wrote, friend! we can’t wait to see you around the golden city!

Trigger Warnings (I warn in front of the bio too I just like having these upfront. If you notice any potential ones I may have forgotten, even if they're not on the trigger list, please let me know and I will add them asap!):

General: Possibly drug addiction tw in her stats, depending on your opinion of caffeine.

Biography: Child Abandonment, Drug Addiction (npc's, not Clarissa's), Accidental Pregnancy (not Clarissa's and only very mentioned briefly in passing)

Full Name: Clarissa Rose Olsen Preferred Name: Clarissa Olsen Age: 28 Birthday: February 14th Height: 5’7” Gender & Pronouns: Woman (She/Hers) Sexuality: Bisexual Occupation: Surgery Resident in the UCSF General Surgery Residency Program Relationship Status: Engaged to Logan Elswood

Place of Birth: Honolulu, Hawai’i Hometown: Waimanalo, Hawai’i Languages Spoken: English, some 'Ōlelo Hawai’i  Country of Citizenship: United States Ethnicity: Kānaka Maoli, Japanese, Russian and Slovenian

Conditions: N/A Allergies: N/A Addictions: Caffeine (gotta have that coffee to function. How else do you get through med school and residencies?)

MBTI: ENFJ Enneagram: 1w2 (The Reformer with The Helper Wing) Alignment: Neutral Good Zodiac: Aquarius Percy Jackson Parent: Persephone Pokémon Type: Ice

Ices are regal, polite, glamorous, and impossibly hard to know. Many of them seem ageless, in a bit of a pinched, tense-seeming way. With them, every pause, smile, and gesture is appropriate, yet strained. They know a lot about proper etiquette, and always have the right answer for how to gracefully solve a social problem. They have many friends, and host wonderful parties, yet you never feel at ease in their presence. Ices are as perfectionistic as Grounds, without the impatience and frustrating goal-mindedness. They are graceful and slow, meticulous and proud. Even something as simple as selecting an outfit can be elevated by an Ice into an art. Every step is considered and measured, every accessory perfectly placed. They don’t like being rushed or criticized; they don’t need your criticism, they’ll find the flaws on their own.

Pokémon Type: Dragon

Dragon Types seem to operate on their own plane of existence, with its own system of morals and values. Stubborn yet perpetually happy, Dragons refuse to grapple with your criticisms of them. Dragons live their lives without any care about whether other people notice. They tend to be reclusive and self-contained. Because they are so resolute about doing things their own way, and feel no need to explain it, they don’t make good long-term partners for most people. However, if you can give them the space they need to forge their own quiet, maybe sometimes even a bit odd, lives, you can learn a great deal of wisdom from them.

Winx: Nature

Father: Rei Olsen Mother: Clarissa doesn’t actually know this info. She left right after Clarissa was born and her father has never talked about her, and she’s never wanted to know. Children: Isabelle “Belle” Elswood (4 years old)

TWs: Child Abandonment, Drug Addiction (specifically cocaine, regarding her fiance), Accidental Pregnancy (not Clarissa's and mentioned briefly in passing)

You can skip both the addiction and pregnancy tw by not reading the 6th paragraph if you'd like. The paragraph starts with "The answer came in less than a year..." so just stop reading and go straight to "And despite the fact..."

For as long as Clarissa could remember, it's always been her and her father. Her mother left, not long after she was born, leaving simply a note that expressed she couldn’t do this. The whole being a wife thing, a mother, it was too much for her. But, despite everything - she’d never really felt a gap missing or anything. She had her father, who loved her very much, grandparents who she spent lots of time with, and she lived in probably the most beautiful place in the world.  Her father was a linguistic anthropologist with John Hopkins, working alongside the anthropology unit at University of Hawaii—Mānoa. A position he’d always held with great pride, but he’d always say the greatest joy was being her father.  And he was a great father. Clarissa didn’t even notice the absence of a mother until she started interacting with children her own age. And in all honesty, she's never really felt that void people expect her to feel whenever she mentions it was just her and her dad growing up. He was always there for her, every step of the way. Which only made the decision to attend college on the mainland even harder for her. Sure, she’d gotten into Cornell - something her father was excitedly telling everyone who’d stop long enough to listen to him. His Clarissa had gotten into an ivy league school, on a scholarship, but despite how ecstatic the man was - that didn’t make leaving any easier. It was in New York City she’d met Logan Elswood, it’d been a casual bump in. It’d been her second year of medical school when they’d bumped into each other and the girl he’d been walking with started laughing and trying to apologize for her dad between giggles. At first she thought it was a weird couple thing. He looked about Clarissa’s age, there was no way he was the father of a college freshman. But then he apologized for his sister and offered to buy Clarissa a coffee to make up for the error and from there, it felt like everything was falling into place. After that day, they’d talk constantly - he’d call her while she studied, she’d sit at his kitchen counter and work on anatomy as he tried to keep all nine of the siblings he’d dropped out of high school to raise out of trouble and try to ignore how uncomfortable the spacious upper east side apartment felt.

He’d grown up in an entirely different world than her. While Clarissa never really noticed her father struggling - the Elswood family were something else entirely. Too rich, uncomfortably so, the type of family where one of them would casually mention loaning their best friend the money for MIT because he couldn’t get a loan from the school at the dinner table and people didn’t act like it was the most outrageous thing they’d ever heard. Sometimes she wondered if this was what she actually wanted - sure she liked Logan, and his siblings accepted her with open arms and genuine enthusiasm. But, did she actually want to stay with him for the rest of her life, knowing that his world was so much different than hers? The answer came in less than a year of dating him in the form of a bundle left on the doorstep one July morning, with a note that echoed the one her mother had left. And despite Logan’s absolute, and genuine confusion, he took the situation at face value and accepted the fact he now had a daughter. Maybe storks didn’t exist, but exes that he’d broken up with long before they’d met and consensual hookup under the influence of cocaine he’d never thought much about certainly did. And maybe most people would have left after being hit in the face that not only was their boyfriend suddenly had an infant on top of the fact he’d never mentioned his cocaine addiction before, but she really liked Logan. And despite the fact all of her friends were telling her to leave before the situation got wilder - she stayed. She’d argue that decision was one of the best ones in her life. It was hard, balancing med school and a daughter she hadn’t been planning on having anytime soon, but it felt worth it every single time she came in the front door and Isabelle’s face lit up. Maybe welcoming your first child in less than a year of dating someone wasn’t the most ideal situation, but the longer Clarissa spent with the two, the more she realized that she wanted this. A life with Logan, being Belle’s mom. When she was given chance to legally adopt the girl finally she signed the papers without hesitation. Clarissa was here for the long haul, even if it meant smiling through her future-father-in-law’s obnoxiously large parties and Logan’s siblings constant shenanigans. It was worth it.

And when Logan suggested moving to San Francisco after she finished up her medical program at Columbia (it was “close enough to Emmett to keep him out of trouble,” and yet “far enough away from LA they wouldn’t have to babysit him unless something went drastically wrong” - a proposition she could understand the appeal of). She applied to residency at UCSF and got into the program, found a nice four bedroom apartment and settled into her life in San Francisco.  As far as anyone needs to be concerned, Clarissa Olsen moved into the neighborhood with her fiance, their daughter, and the two youngest Elswood children who Edward sent to live with them the second he found out they were leaving New York. (Much to Logan's relief, if we're going to be honest). And if the neighbors make comments about how Belle got her nose and how the girl looks just like her, well... Clarissa’s never going to say anything to the contrary. 

[clarissaolsen-archive]

clarissaolsen | exclusive blog for goldencityhq | penned with love by katie

Basics

Introduction

Wanted Connections

Timeline

Credits Page

Current Song on Theme: Everything Matters - AURORA