MURDOCH, Barclay Kairi

[Barclay Kairi Murdoch]

BARCLAY KAIRI MURDOCH

FULL NAME: Barclay Kairi Murdoch
NICKNAMES: There's a couple that she'll answer to
AGE: twenty-six
GENDER: female
SEXUALITY: Straight?
STATUS: Single
GROUP: Citizen.
GRADE: N/A
MAJOR: N/A.
JOB OCCUPATION: Financial advisor

HAIR: Naturally, her hair is brown and curly though she enjoys testing the waters. Currently it's cropped into a blonde bob though she will be letting it grow out and blend it to an Ombre effect.
EYES: brown.
SCARS/BIRTHMARKS: None.
TATTOOS: "Nosce te ipsum" which means "know thyself" and it's on the inside of her left wrist.
PIERCINGS: Ears.
PLAY-BY: Kat Graham! <3

LIKES: having a plan in place when she goes out, knowing exactly where she's going when she leaves the house, cleaning (but only when the mood strikes), salted caramel candies, country music, bracelets, men with tattoos, citrusy smelling air freshers and candles, wax melting pots, craft shows, Harry Potter, Doctor who, men in casual suits (top button undone, no tie kind of thing)sunglasses, messy buns (when her hair is long enough for them)
DISLIKES: rap music, vanilla cake, traditional flowers, coffee flavoured toffee candies, bugs, having a messy car, working out (she does it anyway), something jarring her routine, expected alterations in plans, idiots who won't take no for an answer, gin, vodka (it makes her unbelievably sick), stereotypical dumb blondes, guys who wear a striped shirt under their pinstripe suits (why?), man buns on most men 9some can actually pull them off), alcoholics, illegal drugs
FEARS: Someone teasing her because she's autistic, spiders, cracks in drywall
SECRETS: Though it will not be a secret for much longer, she was recently diagnosed with ASD. She's still working through it so she doesn't want any one to know about it unless she's offered up the information.
PERSONALITY: Barclay is a brilliant woman with a sharp mind and a quick wit but she always felt a little out of control of her life. She would get nervous in large crowds, literally push her way through people to get to the other side but feels unbelievably comfortable at a concert. Her automatic response to someone touching her is throwing her arm out at them unless she's the one initiating the hug or it's someone she loves dearly; like family or a very close friend. She is very good at distancing herself from people when they irritate her or don't understand that she needs to be left alone now. Very recently, she'd been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD and it's like her entire world started to make sense. Its something she's trying to come to terms with because she's not what she would expect of someone with ASD. Of course, she's slowly coming to realise that there are different levels and that's what she's having the most trouble wrapping her mind around. It'll take time but she knows she'll get there. she'd never had any qualms telling it like it is and continues to do so, nor had she ever had trouble taking people out of her life when they don't help her. She can be easily irritable because she feels like some people are just too stupid to live and she somehow attracts them like bugs to a light. She's got a analytical mind, easily able to see all the logic in a moment but she's completely clueless in social interactions. She flirts but she doesn't ever feel like she's hitting the mark, then, of course, she gets frustrated and decides her time would be better spent at home with something on the television and a book in her hands.

MOTHER: Sunshine "Sunny" Murdoch & fifty-eight.
FATHER: John Murdoch & sixty.
SIBLINGS: Holly Murdoch & twenty-eight.
OTHERS: N/A.
PETS: Hatter & Alaskan Malamute!
HOMETOWN: Lake Placid, New York.
HISTORY: Sunny and Rick met in high school. They weren't sweethearts, nor were they even friends. They had a few classes together but that was about it. Still, in those classes, they got along well enough, were able to bounce ideas and jokes off each other well. It was amusing but Sunny was a high school stereotype with a twist, she was the head cheerleader dating the varsity rugby team and Rick was the quiet, shy bookworm who didn't appear to have many friends at all. They grew up, headed off to school and both returned afterwards with their degrees, hospitality, specifically hotel management for Sunny and a teaching degree for Rick. Sunny hadn't just been expected but actually wanted to go into the family business. Her parents ran a yoga retreat of sorts. Her mother and father had met at Woodstock, travelled across the world and learned so much that they brought back with them and turned it into a thriving business. They claimed it was love at first sight while their children joked that it was all the peyote they'd done. Being high was always the go-to joke but the parents didn't mind; probably because the kids were right! Still Sunny had wanted to take over the business aspect of the whole thing. Her sister loved the yoga part and had even gone to learn yoga from the true masters while their brother enjoyed creating dishes people would dream about so he eventually took over the cooking duties. Over time, they turned their small but profitable family business into a thriving endeavour. Rick returned to teach instead of attending their local high school, happy to mould the minds of the future. They met up, by chance, at the local pub. Sunny had gone out for drinks with friends, Rick the same. They stood next to each other at the bar and after realising, though it hadn't been that long, they spent more time than they should have catching up. Rick had definitely filled out and found his confidence, it was attractive so Sunny agreed to have dinner with him that following Friday. From there they had a standing date Fridays for the next six months, though through those six months there were sleepovers and weekend getaways and family introductions.

Rick proposed on the grounds of the retreat after two years of dating, by an old birch tree that was Sunny's favourite reading spot. It was simple, done over a picnic but it was absolutely perfect. They were married in that exact same spot two years later surrounded by their friends and family. It as beautiful, magical and Sunny was so incredibly happy she'd found Rick again. They were so good together. A few more years went by before Sunny was giving birth to their first child. She hadn't really thought about how many kids she'd wanted, they'd never actually discussed numbers but Sunny knew she'd wanted at least two. So they talked about it and thought the closer together they could be, the better. Holly was two when Barclay came screaming into the world. Rick and Sunny once again thought their sweet girl was the most beautiful thing on the planet. Each of their hearts swelled with their newest family member. Some complications arose that needed to be taken care of but it felt Sunny unable to have any more children. She was upset, of course, she was but she had two gorgeous baby girls so she was alright with the sad news.

Nothing seemed overly different between the girls growing up. They each had their little quirks and hobbies, each had their friends. Holly was a little more extroverted than Barclay but that was to be expected from the firstborn; they always seemed to crave the attention more. Barclay liked to read and after going through all the books appropriate for her age, turned to other books in the house, meant for an older audience. She'd read through Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and everything else so she'd needed something else to tear her from the world around her for a little while. It didn't seem strange to either of her parents so they just kept taking her to the bookstore to pick up some more books as she'd been known already to read her books multiple times. Over time, she came into her own, played team sports, seemed to be particularly fond of soccer and ice skating. She tried out for the cheerleading team when she'd reached high school but that hadn't really worked in her favour, which was fine. Holly had made the team and had been amazing so Barclay had known she would always be compared to her sister and that wasn't something that interested her.

Instead, she turned to other hobbies, spent a lot of time in the library and took to writing short stories which garnered her excellent marks during those portions of English class. Throughout all of this Barclay became a bit of a closed off person. She wasn't teased exactly, not that she got immediately anyway. Someone would say something about her being a bitch, a loner, an unfeeling robot because she didn't go out much, she stuck with the few friends she did have and she did her coursework without much trouble. She finished her maths coursework before the teachers ever finished explaining it and definitely before they actually assigned it. Her maths teacher had a habit of writing the assigned pages and questions from the textbook on the board ahead of time so she finished it while others were waiting for class to actually begin. It wasn't unusual for Barclay to get into heated discussions about the topics on hand in her classes. History was a particular favourite to get into debates in, though English, especially during Shakespeare, was a close second. She wasn't sent to the principal's office often so no one really took notice of it. Otherwise, her years through school went by uneventful. She crossed the stage with the rest of her graduating classmates and moved on to school in New York.

University was something entirely different for Barclay. She could handle the classes well enough but the social side of things proved to be very difficult for her. She developed a sarcastic streak to deal with the awkwardness of everything. She enjoyed going out and dancing and having some drinks but she wasn't really great at reading social interactions. She didn't always notice when a guy was hitting on her, as it almost never! Her mind just didn't seem to work that way but she made due. She didn't really care if guys were hitting on her if she went home with one or not. Her one and only boyfriend in high school had figured out after a few weeks that she wasn't registering the fact that he was flirting with her and decided to be bold and just tell her the truth, that he was and that he wanted to be her boyfriend. The same thing with her college sweetheart. He'd given up beating around the bush and just told her he wanted to take her out to dinner, like a date and they ended up spending three years together. They probably would have stayed together if she'd hadn't decided to stay in New York City while he wanted to pursue a career in Boston.

Barclay stuck around, continuing her education until she was one step below a doctorate. She had no interest in teaching but the idea of there being steps above what she had just wasn't acceptable but not getting that doctorate was just fine. She didn't want to have some useless letters behind her name. A degree in finance was a damn good degree to have. Her roommate through all her years in New York had been a nursing major, with a minor in psychology, brought up a couple curious cases of her work a few times but Barclay never really thought much about it other than to give her opinion. Then one night, Farrah came outright and asked if she'd ever been tested or diagnosed with any form or Autism. Barclay laughed it off, thinking her friend needed a nice long lap. She brushed it aside but the thought stuck in the back of her mind and decided after a few weeks of sitting on it to make an appointment with a specialist and get their opinion. They ran all number of tests and sent Barclay on her way with the blanket "we'll call you" line they always gave. To be honest, she didn't think about it again that week, or the week after it. She went into work, she returned home and she enjoyed what life was throwing her way. The week after, she missed a call from the doctor's office as she'd turned her phone on silent during the meeting she'd been in and forgot to turn it back up again. They wanted her to call when she had the chance to book in another appointment. it never boded well when the doctor wanted to see you again so Barclay started to have a panic attack right then and there. A co-worker who happened to be walking by, and for reasons unknown, had known the signs of a panic attack helped her through it before sending her home. He was her superior so she listened to him and left once she was okay again. She made the appointment for the very next day and called her superior to inform him that she wouldn't be in, it would be too difficult with traffic and the time of her appointment.

She sat in that nice office with Farrah as the doctor explained her new diagnosis. Barclay was in a state of shock, but she also felt a bit of relief. She had taken Farrah with her because she knew the medical jargon and knew Barclay well enough to know that she would need it all explained to her again later, once she was actually present. Bits and pieces of her life started running behind her eyes like a film on fast forward, pieces of the puzzle falling into place and making more sense now than ever before. She had been scared out of her wits that something was seriously wrong with her, a tumour or cancer or something bad but finding out she had ASD wasn't nearly as bad as she'd come up within her mind. Like anything, it would take time for Barclay to come to terms with her new living situation. Nothing had really changed except now she could understand why things, like her mind, didn't quite work the same way as Farrah's or anyone else's. She hadn't really thought much about it, just thought she was a bit socially awkward, which she was but there was a diagnosis behind that claiming it was because her brain patterns just didn't catch what other's might quite easily. Her first phone call home was to her parents to tell them what she'd learned of herself. Rick had an inkling but as she'd had good friends and had a boyfriend for a time, he had just thought he'd been mistaken and let it go. Her parents, much like Farrah and Holly, were very supportive of her exploring this new path in her life. It's all still so new and she's not entirely sure what she's supposed to do with the news except explore it and figure out what it all means to her.

YOUR ALIAS: Cali.
RULE WORDS: I've got these handled.
WHERE YOU FOUND US: It'll cost you.
SAMPLE:

Next time! Totally...

[Cali]