River Lodestar's Questionnaire

River (not her real name) was raised in the midwest.  She left her small town in Ohio when she was eighteen to attend college at OSU.  She dropped out in her third year and moved to Berkley to join a feminist wiccan group.  It took her a while to see through their bullshit and realize they were a cult.  She has recently managed to free herself from the cult and is setting up her new life.  She's not the only young woman who has escaped the cult, and she still struggles to separate their propaganda and beliefs from reality.    

She's still committed to some of the cult's deepest held beliefs, like Christianity being what destroyed the world by spreading patriarchy and objectifying women.  She still believes in sustainable living, eating locally produced foods, and that animals are sapient (no proof, she just credits them with the same capacity for soul, love, and pain as a human since humans are, to her, part of the animal kingdom/natural world.

River is living close to the margins.  She gets her money working as an herbalist in an apothecary shop in Berkley.  Berkley, being Berkley, is one of the best places for her profession.  She was given thorough training during her time with the Sisters of Artemis (the cult) in herbalism and living off the land.  She has been able to use this training at the shop, but also teaching the occasional workshop on blending herbal teas, or skin soothing salves.  Any money she makes after she pays her bills she spends on books, plants, and crystals.  Oh, and her Cat, Wanda.  

River wants power.  She initially joined the cult because they promised her power.   They trained her in many things, but the one thing they could not deliver on was giving her real power.  It was this inability that led her to begin questioning them and breaking away from their teachings.  She came to think of them as con artists, though they didn't use slight of hand. 

River still wants the power she was promised.  She knows magic is real, she can feel it, taste it, but has yet to find the means to awaken it within her.  This, plus her vengeance against the one who hurt her, keep her striving.  

As to how far she would go?  One of her core beliefs is that what is worth living for is worth dying for.  That includes her ambition to unlock magic within herself.  Really unlock it.  Really feel the power flowing in her veins and know she can use it, command it.  For that, she would give her life.  Or that of someone else.  Especially Him.

It's hard to pick one moment that defined her life.  Probably because there have been a few, and they all seem to be related.  

The first defining moment was when her boss assaulted her.  She'd trusted him and considered him something of a mentor.  He took advantage of that trust and his actions ruined her life.  Or so she thought.  The assault led to her first name change, her dropping out of college and moving to California, and her disappearing from her family and friends and joining the Sisterhood.  All of this was completely out of character for who she'd been before, a typical college student who did acceptably well in school, had some close friends and a circle of acquaintances, and had worked part time as an assistant to a realtor.  

The second moment that defined her life was when she ran away to California and joined the Sisterhood.

A third would be when she saw through their cult hierarchy and escaped.

Each of these moments have taught her that she can't trust anyone but herself (and her cat), that people are out to take care of themselves, and if you can't tell what they're really after, then you just haven't seen it yet, because people are horrible.

Maggie Emerald Bronson: Witch, healer, shop owner.  

Maggie owns the herbalist shop where River works.  She's an older witch who took pity on River when she arrived in Berkley.  Maggie acts as High Priestess for her circle, and her circle is heavily involved in helping victims of trafficking.  Though River wasn't trafficked, the women's shelter where she first crashed connected her to Maggie, hoping to get her help and spare their resources for girls who had been abused.  She is currently River's closest friend and confidant.

Gabrielle Watson: wiccan, social worker

Gabrielle run's the women's shelter where River first stayed when she arrived in Berkley.  She's a member of Maggie's circle and is the one who connected River and Maggie.  While closer in age to River, Gabby has enough keeping her busy in her life that she doesn't have time to do more witchy stuff than the occasional new moon rite.  She's a social worker, fighting to end trafficking in women and children, and doesn't have much room in her life for more than that.

Pearl: landlord

Pearl owns the house.  She inherited it from her aunt, who had been the one to break it into apartments when the cost of living in Berkley skyrocketed.  She is a curious neighbor, always looking to gossip about her tenants and neighbors.  She's a True Believer but can't tell real from make believe.  River's pretty sure that's because the lady's done too many drugs.

My childhood?  I mean, it was pretty normal.  

River grew up in Cambridge, Ohio, which is a small city in Appalachian Mountains in eastern Ohio.  It's about an hour from Wheeling, WV and sits where I-70 and I-77 cross.  This crossing gives it both problems and benefits.  As a city of about 10k people, it does at least have a real grocery store AND a Walmart.  But sitting at the crossing of the freeways, it's also a major hub for drugs and was at the heart of the Opioid crisis.

Dad worked at the plant where they built engines for semi trucks. Mom was a hair dresser.  I don't think there could be two more mismatched people than my folks.  Mom refuses to leave the house if even a strand of hair is out of place, and dad is pretty much always dirty from working in the plant.  And when he's not in the plant, he's messing around with his truck.  I don't know what they're up to these days.

I also had siblings.  6 of them.  Two older brothers, a younger brother, and two younger sisters.

I went to Catholic School, which means I think I've been to mass more in my life than a lot of life long Catholics.  Mom still goes every Sunday, but ever since he started drinking, dad tends to skip.  I haven't been since I graduated high school.  I assume my family still goes.  I haven't talked to them in the last three years.

I fit in fine growing up.  I mean, I wasn't the most popular kid in school or anything, but I had friends.  One of my brothers is only 9 months older than me, and we were always close growing up.  He's the only one I miss these days.