#at:medical.

[aliaterrahq-blog]

❝ people do not see you, they invent you and accuse you. ❞

C A S E  F I L E ,

f u l l  n a m e, Cosima ‘Cozy’ Margot Ramsay a g e, 21 p r o n o u n s, She/Her/Hers p l a c e  o f  o r i g i n, Alia Terra Colony, Earth 2-c p i l g r i m a g e, First a l l i a n c e, Alia Terra o c c u p a t i o n, Medical Intern

P E R S O N A L I T Y ,

p o s i t i v e, loyal & adroit n e g a t i v e, mercurial & notorious

B I O G R A P H Y ,

triggers: death mention, pregnancy mention

Two sisters are almost twins; they’re only a year apart. Cosima and Tamsin grow up together, hold confidence in one another. They whisper at night in bunk beds, closet swallowing matching outfits instead of monsters. Cosima dreamed of exploring the jungle and its many inhabitants from girlhood. Nigel and Cordelia Ramsay hardly encouraged either girl to follow their passions, rather they focused more on keeping up appearances. One of the first families through the lottery system, the Ramsays’ stalwart loyalty to Yates was accepted without question.

It’s no surprise then that the two sisters, more soulmates than womb mates, would find their own paths–leading them to stray from their parents’ flock. The Ramsay girls do everything together: sneak OTG, study in their favorite booth at the spot ( each ordering their own cookie and splitting it with the other ), disappoint their parents. It’s rare that the two are ever seen apart and, for most of their lives, their world is each other. The two of them have nothing to worry about–it’s a great, wide world OTG and they’re young enough they have their whole lives ahead of them to make something of it.

It starts off slowly, neither sister is interested in waking up for church any longer. They often miss their curfew by just a few minutes. Neither will cave on one another either–their loyalty is paramount only two one another. When Cosima starts seeing Adam Yates, it’s Tamsin who knows before anyone else. Cosima isn’t embarrassed of Becks by any means, only afraid of what her parents would do with the information. Unfortunately, it’s much worse than the forbidden love she’d imagined. Instead, they shower him with hollow kindness–always inviting him and his father over for dinner. She can see that there’s actually a good person in Adam Becher and it’s patronizing the way they pretend. She’s insulted that they can’t see it too.

SHILOH BLAKE WAS NO HERO. He was no better than Becks and yet death turns a blind eye to crimes of the living. The collective memory of the colony forgets the words that antagonized her boyfriend, but she doesn’t. Everything happens so fast. A boy is dead; a boy is banished. By the time the news reaches Cosima’s ears, he’s already gone. The only person to ever capture her attention and affection–outside of her sister Tamsin–is gone, without a trace. Can he even survive out there on his own? There’s solace in knowing that sisters never leave.

Cosima lives in a shell for days. Her science internship is declined. It doesn’t come as much of a surprise after the dirty looks that burn into her like phosphemes every time she walks through the town. Soon after, Tamsin tells her of the pregnancy. It’s hard to be unhappy at the thought of a baby, but both girls know their parents and the town will never let them cling to that small blanket of comfort. They sleep together on Cosima’s bottom bunk in their childhood room that night. The paper stars are faded above them, wilting down with the weight of the girls beneath them. It’s not much long after, that Cosima sleeps there alone again. She sits in their regular booth at the spot–splits two cookies with no one and leaves half of each on the plate. Tamsin said goodbye so fast that she didn’t know how to do anything but freeze. Guilt sticks to ice like a warm tongue; Cosima is so tired of goodbyes.

Weary of the dirty looks and the contemptuous whispers, Cosima becomes a medical intern. Maybe if they can see her doing real good–helping people and healing where her greatest loves only seemed to tear things apart–people will like her ( or at least forget about her ). She pushes her peas around on her plate at dinners with her parents. She keeps to herself. It starts to work. If people still hate Cozy Ramsay, they forget. They start to talk around her and she listens–happy to be a fly on the wall, instead of the one caught in a web. Maybe someone knows something about Tamsin or Becks. Maybe there’s someone else in town she can trust. Cosima sips her coffee, stares out the window, breaks off pieces of cookie on her plate, and listens.

C E N S U S ,

f a c e c l a i m, Eliza Taylor p l a y e d  b y, Bea

[aliaterrahq-blog]

❝ do no harm, but take no shit. ❞

C A S E  F I L E ,

f u l l  n a m e, Harper Sloane a g e, 29 p r o n o u n s, She/Her/Hers p l a c e  o f  o r i g i n, Earth 1 p i l g r i m a g e, Tenth a l l i a n c e, Alia Terra o c c u p a t i o n, Nurse

P E R S O N A L I T Y ,

p o s i t i v e, altruistic & resourceful n e g a t i v e, self-righteous & tenacious

B I O G R A P H Y ,

triggers: parent death, child death, cancer

Four years old when the discovery was made, Harper was raised in a household where her parents dissented the idea of a NEW EARTH–knowing that it was only a matter of time before the wealthy and desirable made it their home and left everyone else behind. The population control, the inability for families to build a better life–all of it contributed towards a steadfast resolve against the idea of a new world, when the Sloane family was certain they would not be among those admitted. Despite the long hours and rough work, Harper’s parents still made time for their children, pushing education as the only ‘Hope’s Gate’ to a better life within their access. It wasn’t long before Harper became the eldest of two, but several once she and her sister had reached school age, the youngest daughter, Netta, was born. 

Responsibility so often rests on the shoulders of the eldest child, and in this case it was no different. All members of the family worked to protect Netta, but Harper was appointed the responsibility of minding her sisters. Things worked well for a long time. By the time Netta reached age ten and Harper sixteen, Harper was working herself, and left Netta alone just long enough to run to the store one lonely night with their middle sister to fix supper while their parents did their own work. Netta had been overjoyed with reading fairytales and, deciding in her sisters’ absence to make the house more atmospheric, lit the small candelabra in the window. The curtains caught fire with such force and Netta was discovered, in her sisters’ absence by emergency responders. Harper’s mother never looked upon her with the same admiration in her cold, vacant eyes after that.

And yet, the choice was easy–a parent’s life for a child’s. It was a decision as classic as it was tragic; as natural as it was romantic. Unfortunately, coward’s hearts ring as true in reality as in literature and on the day of his execution, Harper’s father made a hard choice: HIS LIFE for their youngest daughter’s. After all, he’d latter recount between drunken sobs at the dive bar Harper last saw him in, he did have two daughters already. A dead man had no daughters to care for him. The first punch she’d ever thrown was the last night she ever saw her father. He died sometime later, aspirating on his own guilt and dinner. Harper could remember the lingering smell of desperation masked as whiskey on his breath from that night every time she heard his name.

Harper was not senior to her second sister by many years, but she did the best she could to be a source of support for her. Their mother withered away inside herself long before the cancer took root and spread, from lungs to liver to spleen–ravaging the broken bones of a woman who’d seen too much to know how to live any real life. When she, too, passed both sisters felt they’d grieved enough when she was living and chose to remember her as the woman she was before the loss of Netta, honoring her memory and values. The deaths left a lasting impression on Harper, who felt drawn to protecting to life of those left behind on Earth 1 at all cost. 

Determined to improve the community they’d grown up in, Harper went to nursing school and quickly found herself working in a busy emergency department in the heart of her community, where she met her boyfriend Shane–also an emergency nurse. The two took it upon themselves to make home visits, arrange primary care, and provide social assistance to at-risk members of the community, frequently following up ER patients after discharge from the hospital, where treatment options began to lessen as private hospitals boomed in the anticipation of further pilgrimages. Harper was determined that the lottery was rigged and she and Shane were determined to stay on Earth 1 and cultivate the labor of love they had taken in helping a community whose average health declined further every year.

When Harper’s family name was drawn, she could hardly believe it. Some loves span a life time and others are cut short. The chance of a lifetime presented itself to Harper in the form of a lottery winning. As much as she’d hoped to stay, her profession made her a desirable candidate and she was not given the option to decline. Besides, her parents had failed Harper and her sisters before, she couldn’t let her only remaining relative leave without her–repeating the mistake that had cost Netta her life and torn their family limb from limb. Harper didn’t tell Shane about her departure, ashamed that she’d be leaving–ashamed that part of her wanted to start afresh and leave behind the pollution and the politics and the DEATH that she couldn’t escape. Instead of an explanation, he was given a letter on a pillow where a lover’s head should rest.

Harper has been settled in Alia Terra for TWO YEARS and already it has felt like a lifetime. The green, the AIR, the wildlife and potable water comfort a heavy heart like tinctures, but healing takes time. Harper does not dissent openly, but she is sympathetic to the outsiders and would never deny anyone access to medical care were they to need it. The freedom she first felt, stepping out into a fresh start has become somewhat tainted with the resentment of authority. Harper follows the rules, but she makes no attempt to hide her distaste for being kept inside the compound no matter how pragmatic it may be. A woman who spent her lifetime in a community that held tight to her with tragedy in its claws, it’s hard not to see the community as a gilded cage depending on the day of the week. She has her sister, her work and patients, but few strong connections with those around her that run deeper than professionalism.

C E N S U S ,

f a c e c l a i m, Phoebe Tonkin p l a y e d  b y, Bea

[aliaterrahq-blog]

❝ to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived - that is to have succeeded. ❞

C A S E  F I L E ,

f u l l  n a m e, Jessica Taylor North a g e, 27 p r o n o u n s, She/Her/Hers p l a c e  o f  o r i g i n, Washington, D.C., United States, Earth 1 p i l g r i m a g e, First a l l i a n c e, Alia Terra o c c u p a t i o n, Nurse

P E R S O N A L I T Y ,

p o s i t i v e, brilliant & compassionate n e g a t i v e, cowardly & stubborn

B I O G R A P H Y ,

triggers: parent death

Jessica’s parents were never supposed to be able to have children. Their daughter was nothing less of a miracle in their eyes. As a child, Jessica was attached to her mother’s hip. When her mother was at work in the hospital, Jessica always tagged along. She grew up in the hospital, and she saw firsthand the effects of the earth. She noticed how anytime her mother would walk to work she would have to breathe through a mask. If she didn’t she could barely breathe in the polluted air. 

Jessica was seven years old when her and her parents passed through the portal. The government chose her parents due because they needed the doctors and the guards. Jessica wasn’t sure what to think about being uprooted from the only home she had ever known and expected to adapt and brand new place. For the most part, she liked it. Her parents no longer had to wear those masks to breathe, and the blistering heat wasn’t melting them anytime they left home. It wasn’t long until she realized Alia Terra wasn’t exactly safe. 

When she was twelve, her father was patrolling the area. Jessica heard the screams of her father as he was ripped apart by what was lurking outside those gates. For years after that, Jessica was terrified to go anywhere near the gates. She stuck close to her mother. There was no way she was losing both of her parents.

She has absolutely no desire to set foot outside those gates unless absolutely necessary. Alia Terra keeps her safe, and she wouldn’t be much help to the injured and the sick of she was outside. When Jessica heard of the portal breaking, her heart sunk.  There were still people living on Earth 1, and they would never have a chance to come down and join the others. There’s nothing anyone can do to stop it, but she mourns those who are suffering on Earth 1.

C E N S U S ,

f a c e c l a i m, Lindsey Morgan p l a y e d  b y, Mary

[aliaterrahq-blog]

❝ yeaaah, brace yourself, this is definitely gonna hurt. ❞

C A S E  F I L E ,

f u l l  n a m e, Connor Henderson a g e, 27 p r o n o u n s, He/Him/His p l a c e  o f  o r i g i n, Syracuse, New York, United States, Earth 1 p i l g r i m a g e, Second a l l i a n c e, Alia Terra o c c u p a t i o n, Nurse

P E R S O N A L I T Y ,

p o s i t i v e, analytical & driven n e g a t i v e, reserved & unemotional

B I O G R A P H Y ,

Earth 1 may have been nothing more than a decomposing wasteland, but for Connor it was home. He’d never known anything different than breathing through a mask, than nights spent with a grumbling belly because having enough food was a luxury. That was just how things were, and Connor never questioned it, not even when he heard so many people talking about the new Earth in another dimension, the lottery that might get them there. That was something for the incredibly rich, or the incredibly lucky. Connor’s life was here, on Earth one, and he was happy. He had two loving parents, and what he lacked in popularity in school was made up for by his older brother and sister. Tess wasn’t actually a part of the family, not really, but that was another thing that had never mattered to Connor.

But maybe it should have mattered. The dying earth; the lottery; the technicalities that defined who was or was not a family. 

It was Connor’s name that was pulled from the lottery. The very first one, only two years after the first pilgrimage. How lucky they were, his parents said. A chance for a better life. For the family. 

Only that wasn’t what happened. James was in love, and he’d just turned 18. When he chose to stay behind, their parents couldn’t force him to come. Not like they forced Connor. It was for his own good, they said. James had made his choice, but they couldn’t let that destroy Connor’s future. And so at nine year old, he was ripped from his brother and sister, ripped from the only life he knew, and sent to a world where there was so much oxygen it hurt and monsters lurked just beyond the gates. For years Conner resented his parents. Alia Terra was a paradise, but it was not home. 

Until one day, it was. Despite all his best efforts, Connor adjusted. He grew up. He learned to appreciate how clean the air was, how much better he felt, and he also developed an interest in why that was. Connor had always excelled in math and science; now he applied himself even further, his reputation amongst his classmates shifting from sullen and brooding to more driven and engaged, though still he kept most at an arms’ length. Where at first he hadn’t wanted to make new friends on Alia Terra, now he simply knew better. Earth 1, he’d realized, was a death sentence. And his brother had chosen that over his family. Connor had been angry with the wrong people, and now that he knew as much, he also knew better than to think being close to anybody mattered. 

His opinion didn’t change, not even when James came back into his life seven years later. The man who came through the portal wasn’t his brother: it was a stranger, a man with two children and no Tessa. Their parents were overjoyed. They missed Tessa, of course, but James had returned – and he’d brought grandchildren! The Golden Boy once more, but Connor knew better. He kept his distance, devoting himself even more first to his studies and then to his new job as a medical intern, working his way up slowly but surely. His job was a constant, and it was easy to prioritize over everything else. Dealing with peoples’ emotionswas hard, but fixing their bodies was a way Connor could help them, a way for him to feel connected to the community. 

And although he keeps to himself, Connor does feel connected to the Colony. Alia Terra is his home, and Connor sees it as his duty to keep its citizens healthy – though he’ll help anyone in need, even if they come from outside the gates. Connor’s allegiance is to Alia Terra, but as a medic, his job first and foremost is to help people, no matter where they come from. Especially now that the portal is broken, and there is no promise of more and more people flowing in. As much as he wishes there was something he could do, all he’s capable of is holding out hope that one day the portal will be fixed, and more people can escape Earth 1 before it’s too late. 

C E N S U S ,

f a c e c l a i m, Max Ehrich p l a y e d  b y, Ellie