#little irish kid has an important job fell into her lap that she never really trained for and has to make do

[rosenfey]

— CASSIDY • RYDER

[slightlynyxarchived]

“I have found beauty in the dark, as I’ve seen horrors in the light.”

NYX LI

TWENTY-EIGHT

SHADOW MANIPULATION

CHLOE BENNET

CLOSED

Shadows found Nyx early in life. At the age of six as she slept, the usual shouting rang out through Nyx’s family’s small apartment in Chinatown, New York, her parents at it again. What pulled Nyx from bed was the sound of her baby sister crying in her crib and as Nyx padded quietly down the hall to her room she was stopped in the doorway of her parent’s bedroom, dark eyes wide as she was met with the empty and angry look in her father’s eyes. A loud pop sounded in through the room and tiny eyes were watching her crying mother fall to the floor, sending Nyx’s hands quickly to her ears to cover them before the gun in her father’s hand was turned on himself and he was falling too with another loud pop. Shadows took her over, literally. Nyx’s eyes opened seconds later to find herself standing beside her baby sister’s crib and she lifted her into her arms, carrying her into the dark of the nearby closet to sit and hide holding her. It felt like hours before help came but it was only minutes before the door was being barged through by men and women with bright lights in their hands, flashlights she found herself slightly scared to see after seeing the deaths of her parents like she had. Nyx’s eyes stayed tightly closed to not see any more, but she clutched her baby sister as they were lifted and removed from the building. That was the first time Nyx had felt her power, though at the age it wasn’t known to her what it was, only that it had tried to hide things from her that she didn’t want to see, and she was grateful for that. Days passed slowly it seemed, but after a few she and her baby sister, Brynn, were placed in the home of their grandfather. Resilience became Nyx, but she didn’t often put her sister down often. She did her best to be the one changing her and feeding her. Their grandfather was a loving man, though very strict, and while Nyx came to trust they were both safe she remained adamant and steadfast in raising her sister in the ways that mattered. Still within that sixth year Nyx ventured out into the small neighborhood and quickly befriended a girl her age, bright blue eyes opposite Nyx’s amber; the girls were inseparable and wherever one was, the other was to. Her sixth year turned out alright in her opinion and it only got better the more years that passed beside her best friend, straight through early graduation from high school and early admittance to college, they didn’t stray. Nyx went off to academy to be police officer as she always wanted to be, because if she could stop monsters like the man she had once called ‘dad’ then she felt she could honor the mother she and her sister should have never lost. Nyx had learned her father was a working Vanguard of the Chinese Triad and she dedicated herself to taking down members of violent organizations. The girl who had been her childhood best friend, slowly through the years had become the only person Nyx couldn’t live without, and after graduating from academy the girls married. While on their honeymoon travels, first China and then across Europe, on to Ireland, the two women fell in love with green countryside and decided to call Ireland home. Nyx transferred her citizenship and began working with the Garda Síochána, the government Irish police force and keepers of the peace. It allowed her to patrol the small town of Inistioge Ireland. the commute to Dublin only took a matter of seconds every time she shifted through shadows to get there and she could be right back home to her wife just as quickly. This was a blessing the moment her wife called her home one day with the announcement that their family was growing. Of course her wife being gifted was no surprise to Nyx, the power of conception was something she’d seen her wife work before on a woman in the town who’d been told she was infertile, and with that, twin daughters were on their way, Cade and Chance. Over the next year…came one more little girl, their third daughter, and first child carried by Nyx, Corey. It wasn’t anything science couldn’t give them, three healthy and lively daughters, but it was something all the more special and private being between only the two of them that they didn’t need outside help to achieve. What separated her wife from science and medicine was the arrival of their fourth child, and first son Conor, carried right alongside their daughter Corey growing within herself. The two were born only a month apart and grew close. Years passed peacefully and yet hectic within their home, and their children grew fast, but only one had a love for roaming away from home, from their town, from their country. One day Corey ventured out as she did so many times to hunt and roam wherever she pleased and that trip in particular, the little girl Nyx had carried didn’t come home from. It wasn’t unusual for Corey to roam and stay away from home for long periods of time but weeks turned into months and Nyx’s ferocity grew thicker seeing and feeling the void in their family where Corey was supposed to be. still, every morning she kissed her wife and she went to work, part of her hoping she’d come across Corey while she was out, because she always used to turn up at the station either of her own free-will or brought in for doing something she shouldn’t have. Corey had been her little shadow, always hanging on her legs and climbing into her lap even as a grown young women just to guide Nyx’s hands into hair and ask for a braid, she’d always been turning up at her side and looking to her for guidance and swallowing down work became hard for Nyx to do without word from Corey. It was a quiet morning at the precinct when she was approached asked to step into a conference room by a woman in a sharper uniform than she was used to seeing but she obliged and was introduced to a member of an organization called the rising power. Her daughter had been located and Nyx wasn’t sure how or why these people were coming to her but it didn’t matter if it meant getting to where their missing daughter was being held, as she learned, against her will. Nyx moved with precise tunnel vision after that and she went to work following their directions and using her position of power within the Garda Síochána to contact who she needed to within the Allied Order and turn her services over just to get into Lake Grimstone. Her background with the police force and her credentials, recommendations from Irish Parliament made her a fitting candidate to take up residency as a guard in Lake Grimstone. With that, Nyx made the choice to say goodbye to her wife and their three children and she turned herself over to the government, but not before pulling every string that she could to erase record ties to her wife and children just to ensure they stayed off the radar of anyone who might come looking for them when she turned herself over. Her wife understood more than anyone could, neither of them okay with one of their children not having one of them there within reach. It was a choice only another parent could ever understand and while parts of Nyx’s heart shattered with her family’s, saying goodbye to her soulmate, their anger was stronger for the people who’d separated one of their children from all of them. Nyx harbors a deep anger in her chest to those who’d separated a cub from herself and her wife, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at her. She works dutifully as a guard within Grimstone and makes a blatant point to ensure residents stay under radars with their activities, much as she stays under their radars with her own activities within The Rising Power. She’s close in proximity to Corey now and always watchful of her youngest daughter but she’s even more watchful for those who are responsible for Corey having ended up there. Nyx is playing by every rule she needs to and every order she’s given, but she can be quick to show her claws when exposed nerves are struck. Regardless, she does her job and she does it well. Nothing is more important to her than honor and her family, both areas her father had failed.

POSITIVES: honorable, steady, loyal NEGATIVES: headstrong, stoic, distrusting

ISABELLA DI MARIA

Isabella was the first agent of the government that Nyx met when she turned her services over to Lake Grimstone. Nyx is quicker to trust and follow Isabella’s orders than she is of others, as she’s been the most helpful in the process of her getting settled and she believes Corey has been in safe hands when Isabella is around. It makes Nyx more adamant about trying to recruit Isabella into The Rising Power. Part of her doesn’t want anything bad happening to Isa if a war should finally come to a head and they find each other on opposing sides.

BLAKE NICHOLS

Where Nyx isn’t simply vulnerable around just anyone, she’s found a comfort around Blake with the shared commonality of motherhood. Whether it’s ranting and supportive talks about their kids, or talking about everything under the sun aside from the kids, she feels comfortable talking to Blake and hanging out with her and has appointed herself official wing-woman in Blake’s life, a little unwilling to let just any guy in through the ‘good enough’ filtration system.

GABRIEL ROWLAND

Part of Nyx loves seeing Gabriel take to the skies within the boundaries he’s allowed, but part of her feels the need to call him back down to the ground to discourage him drawing too much unwanted attention from the government with his activities. She admires his flight but she is quickly to call those flying sessions to a close, while sometimes slipping words to him about safer times for him to fly where not so many pairs of guard’s eyes will be on him.

ISAAC TREVINO

Nyx and Isaac, both being guards, can be found a lot together, either on duty or through their training. It’s hard to say if they’re bad influences on each other or if they really just mesh well in the line of work that they make good friends as well. Nyx is very interested in trying to bridge a gap with Isaac and potentially bringing up the topic of The Rising Power, if nothing else just to test the waters and figure out his opinion on things. She feels he could be a good asset to have on her side and vice verse, but if nothing else he makes the time pass more tolerably for Nyx, just by being a friend and fellow guard she can hang out with and train with.