![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selfcaring) wrote2025-06-04 03:52 pm
info / permissions
CLAUDETTE MOREL
— DEAD BY DAYLIGHT —
Other Physical Traits.
IC Permissions.
Background.
From the day that her parents gave Claudette her first science kit, she loved experiments. Her single-minded pursuit lead to an early scholarship at a great college. It was a huge decision to leave Montreal, but the chance was too good to pass up. Her introverted nature means that chat rooms and forums are now her best source of social interaction. Her new favourite activity is to answer botany questions for others under her new moniker of Science Girl.
One evening, during a long bus ride back from the city, Claudette took a stroll that would change her life. It only took a minute for her to get completely disoriented in the thick woods. She never found her way back. Her forum only started to wonder where she was a week after she stopped posting.
Personality.
Claudette is not the outgoing type. Her brilliance provided her with a social handicap and she has fled the real world for chat rooms and forums. Botany and studies fill her life and even though she yearns for something else - it won’t come via a modem.
Being thrown into a real-life situation can feel awkward and forced. But as she is used to shutting out the world, she suddenly finds hope in this inexplicable darkness that is slowly devouring her. A plant. A tree. A bush. Simple greenery that might save a life. She hides within and amongst them. Her knowledge and skills flourish as gruesomeness roams free around her.
Headcanons.
- Text
- Text
- Text
- Text
- Text
- Text
Memories.
Memory 1087. Claudette is seven years old and feels alone. Very alone. Yes, her parents love her. Yes, they want the world for her. But the world doesn't want her. Or, at least, that's what Claudette believes. She just wants to fit in. Fit in at school. Fit in with her cousins. Fit in with her teammates on the soccer pitch. But fitting in isn't as simple as being like others. She's different and she knows it.
She feels slow. Unresponsive. Not quick enough to understand her teacher or keep up with her class. The librarian calls her ‘addle minded.' When she talks, she stutters. Sometimes she loses her breath and has trouble recognizing when she's talking too loudly. But most of all her teacher embarrasses her. Says she's in the clouds. Always in the clouds. Get out of the clouds, Claudette! But she can't help it. She's exploring massive gardens and colorful bugs on strange new worlds.
Memory 1088. Claudette feels things more than others. Much more. Like the shame of not being invited to any birthday parties. Not one party. Every day her parents ask her who she played with at lunch and every day she lowers her chin and tells them she doesn't want to talk.
Her parents ask her teacher and her teacher tells them she likes to play alone. Not so much play. More like collect and observe things. Flowers. Weeds. Beetles. Worms. Rocks. Some kids are just loners. Every day her parents ask her about her friends and every day the shame returns. They want her to have friends. More than that they want a list of names for her birthday. But she doesn't have a list of names. She doesn't even have one name.
Memory 1089. Claudette observes a beetle while her classmates chase one another around the playground. She wants to play but no one wants to be around her. She doesn't want to think about it. Thinking about it hurts. Thinking about it reminds her she will disappoint her mother again.
Her mother just wants her to have a friend. But making a friend isn't easy. Not for Claudette. And she wishes more than anything that it was as easy for her as it was for others. She wishes she had a friend to make her parents worry less. Maybe they would even be proud. Maybe she should give up her passion for bugs and flowers. Maybe that would help. Maybe then she would be like other kids. But the need to explore and collect is strong. It is not beyond her. It is her.
Memory 1090. Claudette loves to collect things and she knows this is why many call her weird. Her father tells her she's perfect the way she is. He tells her a man named Darwin used to collect bugs and plants, too. He had a big imagination like her. He often mused on ideas and theories and boy did he come up with a whopper of a theory! He explains the theory, and she understands. Her father has a way of taking complicated ideas and making them easy to understand. Darwin. Claudette likes the name. She smiles. Stares at her favorite blue and green beetle and names him… Darwin…
Memory 1091. Claudette's mom is crying. She's upset because Claudette is having trouble in school. Her grades are lower than they've ever been. She doesn't understand what she's doing wrong as a parent. Her dad says she's doing nothing wrong. He says Claudette's wired differently and that's okay. Her mom doesn't want her to collect plants and bugs anymore. Her dad says that's the best part of her and he doesn't need a child who fits some bell-curve. More than this he defends her. He tells her mother that the greatest treasures gifted to the world were from those who didn't conform. Who weren't normal. Who didn't fit some outdated bell-curve. Tolstoy. Tesla. Einstein. Shakespeare. Her mother doesn't care. A sudden cry escapes her lips. I don't want her to repeat the year.
Memory 1092. Claudette hides under the covers pretending to be asleep. Pretending she can't hear the yelling. Her mother wants her to get special help, but her father doesn't want to alienate her. He's right. Claudette doesn't want other kids to know she needs special help. They'll laugh at her. She'll figure things out. She promises she will. Her new substitute teacher Mrs. Cahil is helping her. A lot more than the other teacher who always said she was in the clouds. Her father says stress is the worst thing for a child's developing brain. Leave her be! Let her grow at her own pace! Stress shrinks the brain. Destroys confidence. Kills creativity. He doesn't want her studying at lunchtime. Lunchtime is for real growth. Authentic growth. Growth unhindered by the pressure of tests and the fear of making mistakes.
Memory 1093. Claudette's mother is happy because her grades are improving. A single teacher can make a difference. Can make all the difference. Especially this teacher. Mrs. Cahil. Other kids call her strange and weird. But Mrs. Cahil isn't weird. She just gets it. She understands because she had a tough time learning when she was a student. This is why she makes an extra effort to help Claudette. To help her understand what she is explaining in class without alienating her.
Memory 1094. Claudette is happy because her new teacher is helping her. Really helping her. She's learning new things every day. More than facts and vocabulary she's learning how to learn. Or rather, she's learning how she learns and that is the key. But her teacher is doing something else. Her teacher is talking to her. She's talking to her about her ‘issue' and how her ‘issue' is really a blessing in disguise if she can just learn how to succeed in a system that favors one type of ‘smart' at the expense of all the others. A system that frowns on taking chances or making mistakes when making mistakes and taking chances is what is needed for learning. For true learning. Her teacher tells her that she has passion and passion is everything.
Memory 1095. Claudette knows she's not like other kids and she doesn't have to be. Things like ‘bell curves' and ‘ideal student' don't apply to her and that's okay. The ideal mold is a prison for those wired differently and her teacher has set her free. Her grades are getting better and a test is coming. She writes, visualizes, and imagines everything she needs to remember and somehow this works. The right teacher at the right time can make all the difference.
Her parents are proud. Very proud. But still her mother wishes she had friends. Still her mother wishes she liked what other girls liked. Her parents argue in another room about what to get for her birthday. Her mother wants to buy a new doll. Her father thinks she'd like something more related to bugs, plants and bacteria. The suggestion upsets her mother. He father defends her. See her for who she is and not who you want her to be!
Her mother goes silent. She suddenly releases a cry and says she doesn't want her to be bullied like she was bullied throughout school. Claudette's eyes go wide. For the first time in her life… she realizes… her mother's wired differently, too.
Memory 1096. Claudette will be eight-years-old tomorrow. She should be eager. She should be excited. She should be counting the hours, minutes, seconds... Instead, she is none of these. She dreads the moment she will have to open her gift. Every year it's the same. Dolls. Crafts. Jewellery. Nothing that means anything to her. Maybe this year she'll smile and pretend she didn't want a magnifying glass or a collection of stones or a set of books on botany. Maybe… to make things easier… she'll pretend. Maybe that will make her mother less scared for her. Seeing her happy about her grades felt good. Real good.