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Charlotte 'Charlie' Marie Gale

Fandom: The Enchantment Emporium (or Gale Girl) series by Tanya Huff

16 year old Freshman


Character Background


Assume we've never even heard of your show/movie/game/book/comic/play (known as 'canon' from now on). Please explain it to us.:

The Enchantment Emporium series (or Gale Girl series) by Tanya Huff is set in Canada. Most of it takes place in Calgary, but Charlie pre-canon is from Darsdan East in Canada, which is in Ontario, northeast of Toronto in Lennox and Addington County (and boy, did I have a time trying to figure out unfamiliar Canadian geography - I apologize if I've messed it up). It is at heart an Urban Fantasy series where the fantastic exists right alongside the 'normal' and most people have no idea it exists. There's a full complement of Fae, complete with Gates to the UnderRealm. There are selkie, brownies, leprechauns, corbae, etc. (And possibly vampires in the catacombs beneath Paris.) Most of the Fae stay in their own Courts in the UnderRealm, though the fullbloods love basketball and there are a couple on most of the major teams. Dragons, trolls, goblins, etc. mostly are kept in the UnderRealm and the Fae guard the Gates. Usually. Sometimes things happen.

At the center of the story is the Gale Family, a largely matriarchal group - Charlie's particular family is centered in Ontario, though it's suggested that there are other Gale Families throughout the world. For a Gale, family is everything and most families have four or five girls to every boy. The girls are highly magical and might closely be compared to witches, though they don't call themselves that. In fact, we find that Gale Girls came about when, and I quote "A long long time ago a woman went into the woods and met a god. Rumor had it she had a bit of an antler kick, so she kicked his feet out from under him and beat him to the loam. Nine months later she had twin daughters". Pretty much all the Gale Girls have dark blonde/golden blonde hair and grey eyes - which darken to black when they cross to second or first circle - more about that in a minute.

Their magic is done largely through charms which can be written down, baked into pies, drawn or sketched with your finger/pencil/nail polish on a person/place/thing, stirred into a drink, poured into pancakes - pretty much anything you can imagine. The Aunties and Aunts and mothers are always putting charms in food. (Wear clean underwear, call home more often, etc. etc.) Charlie can use her guitar to play a charm or access her magic. As with many religions/magical systems descended from a Horned God, sex plays a big part in their rituals and the Gales as a whole are very sex positive and 'enthusiatically nondiscriminating'. Sex is very casual, loving, indiscriminate as to gender and often involves more than one person. On ritual times like May Day or the Solstices, the power circles are anchored by sex - the Aunties keep lists to make sure relationships aren't too close - that they are distant enough cousins - and that the parties are within 7 years of each other.

The girls come into their powers at fifteen and that's also when the boys begin to show horns - mostly in a metaphysical sense, though they can also turn into stags. Girls (and boys) start out in the third circle for rituals, and eventually move into second circle which is all about connection. In the books, Charlie's cousin Allie becomes second circle and is connected to Calgary. As in everything in Calgary. Every person, creature, fae, animal, bird, house, landform - everything. When they move to first circle they become Aunties and are considered about the scariest and most powerful beings you'd ever hope to never cross. When an Auntie wants something to happen the Universe usually makes it happen.

To a lesser extent that's true for all the Gales. Need a cab? It shows up. (The Aunties never have to pay.) Need thirteen last minute seats on a completely booked flight? Hey, look at these cancellations. Here's the bus right when you need it, of course there's a reliable contractor/part/hotel room/you name it, ready and waiting for you. Also, if there's an upgrade available to first class or business class, to a suite, to whatever - it will be given to them. It's just expected and accepted, though it never seems to be abused - except for the Aunties and the free cabs and what have you.

Gale boys have power and Gale girls are drawn to power. The strongest male in each area becomes tied to the land and often roams it as a large horned stag. They run with the Aunties in the first circle and if they falter a Hunt can be called. They can also be challenged by another man/stag in a fight to the death for control - though the Aunties determine when and how that is acceptable. (Just... don't mess with the Aunties. It will always end badly for you.)

Gale Girls are aware of any magic anywhere.Third circle can heal bruises, minor lacerations and immobilize broken bones in a pinch. First and second circle can do more in depth healing. Some of the Gale Girls - like Charlie can also walk the Wood, which is a dimension just a step outside of ours. If you can walk the Wood you can travel through it from one place to another quickly and almost instantaeously. If you're very good at it, you can also bring someone along with you - or, in Charlie's case a car or minibus. Basically, as long as there is some sort of wood or plant life you can enter or exit the Wood at that point. Some need full on woods, Charlie can manage with some small plants.

Every once in a while one of the Gale Girls turns fifteen and when her power comes in they discover she's one of the Wild Powers. They aren't as directly connected to everything and don't tend to settle down the way the others do. They tend to go off on their own eventually. They have the ability to change the very nature of reality, but they limit their own powers until something happens that makes them break free a bit and take on a deadly storm or a cave troll or get a group of pipers to play a song that will drop the sea floor. They even get the whole "with great power comes great responsibility" speech. Auntie Gwen tells Charlie that she is a "free electron, able to affect what you will. A warm body between this world and all the metaphysical shit that comes down the pike". They also make it clear that part of the reason she has this power is that until she needs it, she has no interest in it and that people who want this kind of power should never be allowed to have it. Charlie won't really tap into her Wild powers until she's 26, but the potential is there.

Oh. And no one in the family is ever, ever called Dorothy.

Now onto your character. Please tell us about them. Appearance, personality, how they react to others in general and where they fit into the canon you explained above. Describe the character to us so we can get an idea of who's joining the community.

Charlie is coming in pre-canon at 16 years old. She is five foot, seven inches tall with short hair. It's naturally a dark blonde color, but she usually has it dyed red, blue, purple or whatever other color strikes her fancy (or that I can find icons for). She is, like all Gales, happily bi and polyamorous. She has younger twin sisters, who are constantly testing their own limits, and whom Charlie is often asked to pop in and check on through the Wood. She's very smart, is a bit of a pop-culture and Celtic music nerd (the books are full of marvelous references, such as her helping a cousin download Torchwood or playing the first three bars of 'Sail Away Ladies' to toss two would be thieves into the ocean). She's easygoing to the point of laziness, at least as far as the Aunties are concerned, and has a wandering soul. She considers herself packed if she has her guitar and a pair of underwear tucked into a pocket of her gig bag - and she can do without the underwear in a pinch She'll always make her way back home, but as they continually say in the books, 'Charlie doesn't stay'. The Aunties are hoping that with all the different people and opportunities in Fandom, Charlie will be a little more settled there.

Charlie came into her powers a year ago, where they discovered she was a Wild Power, and is considered to be third circle. Her cousin Allie is her best friend and one of her lovers, though she certainly has many others both within her 'list' and outside of the family. She's not the jealous sort and all of her exes remain friends or at least friendly.

She is also an exception to the rule that all Gale girls are excellent cooks. They generally bake magic into the food, so they don't let her bake. She made a lemon meringue pie once - the grass never grew back. There are also whispers of chocolate cupcakes gone horribly wrong (truly horribly wrong on a massive scale) that are told to scare the younger Gales.

Shortly after she came into her powers, on her first solo Walk through the Wood, she became completely and almost hopelessly lost in the Wood. Eventually she was able to find Allie's 'song' and follow it out of the Wood where Allie put herself between Charlie and the Aunties until Charlie had pulled herself together - something Charlie will always be grateful for. Now she can go anywhere in the Wood and often gets tapped to play taxi and bring family members from one place to another. She can also use the Wood to travel through time and get you somewhere before you left. (Later she'll travel many years into the future to save the world - but that's another story.) Charlie is probably above all a musician - and will be considered a Bard when her WIld Power kicks in - which is why so much of her magical ability is tied to hearing the 'song' of a person or place. She can use charms like all the other Gale Girls, but can also use her music to sing or play something into happening. She currently plays guitar, banjo, and mandolin as well as having a pretty decent voice. In canon she makes a living playing in a wide variety of bands and doing session work.


Powers! Does your character have any abilities (powers, skills, training or weapons) that go beyond what a normal person would have?:


I think most of this was covered in the previous two sections as it's such an integral part of the world and who Charlie is, but I'll recap. Charlie is magical and her magic is done largely through charms which can be written down, drawn or sketched with your finger/pencil/nail polish on a person/place/thing, stirred into a drink, poured into pancakes - pretty much anything you can imagine. She can sketch a charm on a person/their clothing/their belongings/their room/whatever, and change their mind/help them heal/brighten their mood/make their vehicle safer or faster/give them some luck (good or bad)... the possibilites are mind-boggling. She can also use her music to do the same sorts of things without needing to get up close and personal. Eventually she'll be able to call up or disperse a storm and do other such nature based things.

She is aware of any magic happening or being used anywhere and as a member of the third circle she can heal bruises, minor lacerations and immobilize broken bones in a pinch. She has the ability to use the Wood to travel in both Time and Space, though her ability to move through time is pretty limited still.

Why is your character coming to Fandom and what kind of situation are they leaving behind at home?:

Charlie is sixteen. When she turned fifteen and came into her powers they discovered she was Wild, so she's different from the rest of the Family, definitely expected to head off on her own and go rogue in some way when she's older, more likely to charmingly slither out of unpleasant situations, and more likely to get herself into trouble (like getting almost hopelessly lost the first time she travels through the Wood). She also is easily bored with routine and has a tendency to want to wander. So the Aunties have decided - and woe betide anyone who challenges them - that Fandom will be a good place for her. She can return home whenever she wants - portal or no portal - and the magic and variety of people and situations at Fandom will hopefully keep her occupied enough to (mostly) stay put and keep her out of (serious) trouble.

She will be both excited and happy to be in a new and amazing place, sad to be away from Family and her cousin Allie, annoyed with the Aunties (when aren't people?), and curious about new people and things. And if she gets into some good trouble and some warm beds along the way, well, that's just a plus.


Is there any reason that they might cause trouble to other characters in the Fandom High setting due to behavior or abilities? How would you account for that to make the character work well in a group-intensive environment?:

As I mentioned previously, Charlie can play a tune or sketch a charm on a person/their clothing/their belongings/their room/whatever, and change their mind/help them heal/brighten their mood/make their vehicle safer or faster/give them some luck (good or bad)... the possibilites are mind-boggling. That said, there are unstated rules about who and what you can charm - not that Charlie isn't known to play a little fast and loose with the rules on occasion. Charlie generally doesn't look to cause trouble for anyone - unless they truly deserve it - and most of her 'trouble' is more along the lines of good-natured pranks.

However, in terms of Fandom, OOC consent will absolutely be checked for before she uses a charm on anyone or does something that might affect anyone other than herself.


Links to character/series information:


It's me, so my canon is fairly obscure, but here's what I could find:
A link to a precis for each book: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/h/tanya-huff/enchantment-emporium/

The books with people's reviews on Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5552232-the-enchantment-emporium
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10773311-the-wild-ways
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20893315-the-future-falls

And, of course, they're available as ebooks and regular books.


Do you have any other information you feel we should know about the character or you as a player that doesn't fit in the categories above?:

Charlie has a cell phone that started out as the cheapest model, which once the Aunties were through fiddling with it now has all the possible bells and whistles a cell phone could ever have - including free and reliable signal whether there's a signal to be had or not. It also can't be lost. Charlie canonically has thrown it in the ocean or left it in some strange place and it always gets delivered back to her one way or another.

She also has a magical coin that her mother or any of the aunts or Aunties can send baked goods - generally pies - through. The recipient keeps it in their frig to prevent accidents happening - like pies appearing in their back pocket or clogging a toilet if you accidentally drop the coin in.


Charlie is generally very easy-going. If there's a problem and it's important to her then she'll work it out. If it's not she'll slide herself out and make a note to self to be careful there. She's also the type to throw herself in and embrace the weirdness and see where it takes her.


Writing Sample: Please write at least 300-500 words *in character* having your character do something, anything, set on Fandom Island.

Charlie found her designated dorm room and dropped her bag on the bed before setting her guitars and banjo carefully up against the wall. She absently sketched a charm on the headboard to promote good sleep and a touch-me-not charm on her bag before investigating the room and checking out the view from the window. The Ride of the Valkyries rang out on her phone while she was musing and she answered it automatically.

“Yes, Auntie Jane, I'm here safely ... yes, I will remember to call my mother … no, I don't know where Auntie Ruby might have hidden that, I wasn't even there!” She nodded along, only half-listening to the expected lecture. “Yes, I have my charmed coin and yes, I won't forget to put it in the refrigerator so I don't end up with a pie in my jean pocket, but the only refrigerator is in the common room so if you don't want random people charmed, I'll have to pick up a mini – hang on.”

She went to answer the knock on the door and opened it to the delivery of a mini-fridge. What the Aunties wanted to happen, happened.

“Got it. Thank you, Auntie Jane. … Squirrels? That know all your business? And how is that different from you and the other Aunties?” Whoops, she'd gone too far there. If the screeching on the other line was any indication there'd been at least two other Aunties listening in. “Hey, I have to go. I'll call you later.” She hung up the phone and stuffed it quickly in one of the drawers before grabbing her guitar and slinging it over her back. She'd caught a glimpse of shirtless guys down at the Welcome Picnic and there was no way she was passing that up for another lecture!

Quick detour to the cooling mini-fridge to drop the coin off on the wider shelf and she was hustling down the stairs and out towards the picnic. If they'd told her there would be this many hot guys and girls and other gentle-beings she wouldn't have put up much of any sort of a fuss.

The picnic didn't disappoint. She stood for a moment with a huge grin on her face, taking in all the beauty, before she even noticed the food. This place was going to be amazing! She grabbed a plate sketching a quick charm to keep the food where she put it and grabbed a nice selection of foods she knew and some she'd never seen before. Thus fortified, she took another moment to look around at all the different people, many of them shining with their own power Oh yes, that one looked like a wonderful person to approach.

“Hey there, Charlie Gale, nice to meet you!”

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Charlotte 'Charlie' Marie Gale

July 2024

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