Phoebe Riggs's Questionnaire

During the school year I live in NYC attending Brooklyn College for a creative writing degree. When I am not living in the dorms, I am home with my parents in Cold Spring, NY, the quaint riverside village where I grew up. Brooklyn College has become a home away from home since I spend most of the year there. I am a junior, so I am quickly coming up on my last year of undergrad. I spend most of my time outside of class in one of the many libraries in and near the college, reading and studying things I want to write about. I am looking for an apartment in NYC so I can stay here full time, as I love being one of many in a city more than a person everyone knows in a small town.

I get my money from a combination of student loans and my part time retail job. The student loan money goes towards living on campus and acquiring textbooks for my classes. The money I get from my retail job goes towards new clothes and things I want, as well as saving up to pay those aforementioned student loans. Having the meal plan at college means I don't have to worry about too much in the way of groceries, but I still like to make sure I have some snacks in the dorm so I can eat when I need to. 

I want to help people. I was born different and I want to help the people like me. I also want to grow my power, as this is my way of helping people. Outside of this, I study creative writing to help give people like me the same escape my favorite authors gave me in my childhood. By growing my power, I can fight for those who don't have the power to fight for themselves. If I can make even one person's life a little better, then I have succeeded. By writing stories, I give people worlds to escape in and characters to befriend. I can only hope that my writing can help those I can't help with my powers.

I was originally meant to be two people; twins, but they absorbed into each other in the womb, creating me. While many say that I am one twin who absorbed the other, I know that isn't true. I can feel each of them pulling for a little more control, but everything changed when they showed who they were truly meant to be. One twin has magic of the sun, capable of creating light, warmth, and fiery destruction. The other has magic of the moon, weaving divination and illusion to her will. They awakened one day in high school, when a bully decided they could beat up my friend. I was so angry and then light and power poured out of me. Thankfully there were minimal injuries, but after that day, the twins became so separate in my mind. The one who has sun magic named herself Lyana and the other named herself Selene. I am both of them, but they are not each other. It was confusing at first, but I have learned to navigate that as time has passed. That day was also when my eyes changed, one becoming a rich gold and the other a cool blue. Ultimately, this is why I fight. Selene and Lyana came to light when someone I cared about was getting hurt, and through me they can now help others too.