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〈 PLAYER INFO 〉
NAME: Sarah
AGE: 27
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RETURNING: Athos |desequilibre
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Clary Fray / Shadowhunter.
CHARACTER AGE: 16
SERIES: 'The Mortal Instruments.'
CHRONOLOGY: Book III: City of Glass.
CLASS: Hero.
HOUSING: Please house her with some roommates if possible.
BACKGROUND: Book Series: City of Bones | City of Ashes | City of Glass.
Clary is from a world that is, on the surface, basically the same as modern day Earth. She lives in New York in 2007, she watches TV and uses telephones and public transport. She goes for coffee with her friends and tries to sneak into clubs. To all outward appearances, her world is entirely ordinary.
Beneath this surface lies another world, the world belonging to Shadowhunters. They are a group of people who live in secret, hidden away from the rest. Most ordinary people, including Clary in the beginning, have no idea that they exist and no reason to know. Theirs is a world that lives - ironically enough - in the shadows. Through a system of magic which the characters call ‘runes’, they are able to conceal the existence of their society from ordinary humans, whom the Shadowhunters refer to as ‘Mundanes’. There is a Mundane, or normal world, and there is the Shadowhunter world. And in theory, never should these two meet - the Shadowhunters are supposed to operate within the human world, without being part of the human world. They are supposed to conceal themselves and do their work without anyone noticing that they are there. Because of this, they have a somewhat insular society which is distinct from the human world, and they see themselves as set apart. The important thing for Clary is that, unknown to her, the Shadowhunter world is her world - she is one of them, and belongs as one of their number despite growing up in the ‘Mundane’ world. During the course of her canon, Clary discovers the truth of her birth, and finds herself thrown into the Shadowhunter world despite her own mother’s efforts to keep her from it.
The Shadowhunter world is one that is particularly medieval in some ways. Their weapons are the same as they have always been, they don't use guns or tanks ( mostly because their magic has an explosive relationship with gunpowder ) and they have a very distinct and regimented set of rules and regulations. They live in churches and hallowed grounds. While they are aware of modern living they don't necessarily care for it. Popular culture is beyond them, and while they have some similar amenities - such as electricity and motorbikes - they don't really watch TV. Clary finds that particularly strange as she's grown up all her life in New York. Despite this Clary is shown to have a yearning for another world, through her drawings of princes and magic and strange people. She is someone who feels different and longs to be different, and her discovery of the Shadowhunter world becomes the answer to that longing.
Her first glimpse into their world is seeing a demon in the shape of a young boy vanquished in the back room of a club she often frequents. Clary reacts with horror and fear but that only lasts as long as it takes her to find herself in that sphere again. The next time she comes across the Shadowhunters, her curiosity is a demanding thing as though she is just waiting for the knowledge to unfold itself in her mind. She begins to see things differently - a doll with real fluttering pixie wings, a man with cat eyes - and it’s like the more she looks the more open the world becomes. Despite how startling and strange it is, it sets her on the course of fully realising the person she is. That person is one who can deal with demons in her family home, who can walk into a den of vampires to save her best friend, who can do whatever it takes to get her mother back.
On being thrust into their world, Clary begins to discover the history of her own people, a people that she never even knew existed. The Shadowhunters are human beings originally descended from a man named Jonathan Shadowhunter. The angel Raziel gifted Jonathan with a cup, from which he could drink the angel’s blood. This changed Jonathan, as angel blood is wont to do. Because he drank from the cup, he received certain powers that went beyond a normal human's skill - greater strength and agility, as well as the ability to mark himself with 'runes'. These abilities became a part of Jonathan’s bloodline, and were passed down through the generations until eventually a whole race of people were created. Shadowhunters - also known as Nephilim - are a secret group of people well beyond our own world. They became the appointed warriors of Raziel, chosen because of their strength and skill to protect the Shadow World - more specifically to stop the evil of demons from bleeding out into the universe. They have been chosen to keep the peace as well as protecting both their own people and the Mundanes.
One of their major abilities is the power to create ‘runes’ on their skin. Runes are markings that can be carved into the skin of a Shadowhunter using a weapon called a stele. They are used to grant temporary powers to the Shadowhunter using them, such as the ability to heal quickly, become invisible, or gain clairvoyant sight in battle. Runes can also be drawn on objects - for example to allow the Shadowhunter to see through walls or create a ward to protect a building. Runes are somewhat similar to the idea of a magic spell - they are specific, with each one having its own distinct meaning which must be learned. They are written down in what is known as the Grey Book, much like a traditional grimoire or Book of Shadows. The ability to use them comes from the Shadowhunters’ angelic blood, and they begin to learn this craft from a very young age. There is also an inherent magical power in runes, and they must be handled carefully. For example, copies of the Grey Book are rare because the magic in the steles causes them to burn through the paper they are placed upon. Only Shadowhunters have the strength to withstand them being placed on their bodies, as it would kill a human. This distinct, specific system is a core part of the Shadowhunter tradition - they learn about it from childhood, and runes for them are both a birthright and a study in magic, lore and application of their powers. Runes are something that must be learned.
This is the world into which Clary finds herself thrown. It is structured and built on tradition and study, yet she discovers that she is able to do something unheard of among the Shadowhunters - she is able to create new runes. She is able to see new runic shapes within her mind’s eye, draw them with her stele, and then use them. This is why Clary becomes so important to the Shadowhunters. Only angels are supposed to have this ability. Clary is the first human Shadowhunter to be able to do so. In addition, the runes that she draws are far more powerful than the average Shadowhunter, and despite not having the years of training that they do, she is able to do things with her powers that they cannot - this is why she is exceptional. However, it also clearly makes her different. She is an oddity even among Shadowhunters, and the reason why is something that she must discover during the course of her canon.
By Clary's time the Shadowhunter world is one that is growing in the shadow of a war. Before she was born, a group within the Shadowhunters known as the Circle rose up against the bureaucracy of the Clave. The Clave is their law council, a harsh and regimented set of people who have ruled them almost from the very beginning. Their motto is the law is hard but it is the law. There's very little room for being your own person in that world. At the time of the Uprising, the Clave were aiming to have peace between the races, Shadowhunters and vampires, werewolves, warlocks. They sought to have an Accord that would stop the fighting and allow the groups to live harmoniously together, allowing more time to fight against demons.
Valentine Morgenstern took exception to that. Valentine was a young man who was well educated and charming, he was the type of person who could wrap you around his little finger. Throughout the canon people talk about him as though it were so easy to be caught up in his schemes and it shows with the way he talks and acts. He believes himself to be better, and there is a confidence to him. Though at first the Circle was created to reform Clave law, the death of Valentine's father put an end to that. He no longer wanted to change the Shadow World, but to destroy the Downworlders as well. Valentine was an extremist, he believed that Downworlders ( vampires, werewolves, warlocks ) were demons in human form who should be eliminated to cleanse the world of their evil. He wanted the Shadowhunter race to remain superior and untarnished by those he saw as subpar. He believed that having relationships between the races would ruin what made Shadowhunters ultimately unique. He didn't want a law that bound them in peace, he saw it as an abomination.
During his time in the circle, Valentine began to experiment on both Downworlders and Demons alike. He discovered that if he drank demon blood that it boosted his powers for a short time. Because of this, he summoned the demon Lilith to ask for some of her blood. He planned to use it to make his first unborn child stronger than anyone imagined. It did have some effect - though it turned the child peculiar and gave Jocelyn incredible nightmares, sewing the seeds of her distrust. To soothe Jocelyn's pain, he began feeding her with angel blood ( from an angel he captured around the same time he summonded Lilith), not knowing she was pregnant. He began to use his manipulative powers to warp and change the members of his Circle, making them believe they were doing things for the right reasons, but all the time it was just to gain them more and more power. He hatched a plan with his group, one that would see the end of all Downworlders. He had hoped to trap each of them in the Accord Hall when they were signing the Accords, and use the ocassion to slaughther them all. By this point Jocelyn no longer trusted her husband, and with the help of Luke and Ragnor Fell, was able to thwart the attack by warning the Downworlders and having backup for them. The result was the death of most of the Circle members and the Downworlders. This event became infamous in Shadowhunter history, and was talked about for many years after.
As a result of Valentin’s actions, by the time Clary discovers them, the Shadowhunters have become a wary, suspicious people. They see outsiders as a danger, and in particular, are very wary of anyone who might speak out against the Clave. Anyone who dared to do so would be thought of as another Valentine. By the beginning of Clary’s story there are rumours of Valentine's return. This is something that takes place just as Clary is beginning to find her feet in the Shadowhunter world. To her, their world is a place of smoke and mirrors and tricks, like shadows at the corner of her mind. She is both wary and in awe of it.
Clary spends most of her time trying to find the balance between her two worlds - the human world, and the new Shadowhunter world. She struggles with keeping her friend Simon from feeling abandoned. She contends with the knowledge that her mother had deliberately kept her away from the Shadowhunter world for all of her life, and tries to balance that against the deep deep desire she has to be a part of it. She quickly finds herself wrapped up in their war with Valentine. He is once more after power, but this time he believes he can have it by gaining access to what are known as the Mortal Instruments ( the Cup, the mirror, the sword ). He has spies everywhere, and his ambition remains much as what it always was - to create a superior master race of powerful Shadowhunters. Clary's aim is to stop him and rescue her mother, who he has captured. There are many obstacles in her way; the way the other Shadowhunters treat her, Isabelle and Alec's disbelief because they do not see her as one of them, Jace's refusal to be close to her because of his feelings, the Clave seeing her as Valentine's daughter - but she does her very best to learn more and more and stop him as well as she can. As time goes on, Clary begins to adapt to this world which at first seemed so strange. She begins to find herself within it. She even believes there's a sense of rightness to her when she puts Amatis' gear, as though she is finally coming into the woman she should be. While she doesn't necessarily see herself as a saviour, she's quite eager to try, and it's only through Jace's fear that she keeps herself and her power a secret.
More than ever the Shadowhunter world of panic and distrust, one that is afraid of seeing the old rules and institutions crumbling.
PERSONALITY:
“I'm not an angel, Jace," she repeated. "I don't return library books. I steal illegal music off the internet. I lie to my mom. I am completely ordinary.”
Clary Fray is like the typical embodiment of a modern teenage girl. She likes quirky bands and anime, uses sarcasm as a weapon, draws to pass the time, and is the owner of several adolescent identity issues. When we first meet her she's searching for something, anything to bring her out of her dull and boring normal life. Whether that be clubs or boys or the usual normal list of 'edgy' things. It's clear that she's getting that itch to shrug off the last vestiges of childhood and become someone new. She acts against her mother's protection and typically spends her time shrugging off her concerns and her worries. Adults are never right, and Clary is often found making her own choices no matter what seems the most reasonable or obvious option. She's like every young teenager, trying to find out who she is underneath all of the stuff that's been placed on her by people before. She only has her mother, she doesn't know who her father is only ( or so she believes at the time ) that he was a good man who died a noble death. She's too much like her family, stubborn and headstrong and easy to anger.
Her attitude and the way she sees herself is incredibly self-deprecating. It can easily be seen as a weakness. Clary states time and time again that she doesn't think she is interesting or beautiful or worthwhile. She doesn't feel special. That she needs something to prove her worth indicates a lack of self-esteem. She's often comparing herself to other girls ( her mom, Isabelle, Aline ) and doesn't see why anyone would want or care for her. When Jace initially shows an interest she seems to think it's a game for him, and later in the books, she almost considers him leaving her to be an eventuality. She has a list of reasons why she's not attractive, she's too short, too redheaded, too freckly, and she's often found going over and over the list in her head. She has the typical adolescent way of picking herself and her abilities apart. She is always comparing her skills to other people too, her artistic talent against her mothers, her Shadowhunter training against Isabelle's flawless style. Clary often seeks something that is unique and hers, something that can't be stacked up against someone else's. When she finds out who she truly is, and what Valentine did to her, there's a sense of horror there, but also a feeling of understanding. He fed her mother angel blood when she was pregnant and that gives Clary an edge on most Shadowhunters. She is the only who who can make up her own runes, or create ones with as much power as she does. She isn't necessarily human, she is something other, and something apart from the Shadowhunter world. There is a relief inside that knowledge.
"Every teenager in the world feels like that, feels broken or out of place, different somehow, royalty mistakenly born into a family of peasants. The difference in your case is that it's true."
She is also very wilful. She's passionate and rash, jumping into things even when her safety net is threatened. This is both a strength and a weakness. She spends her time pinging from one danger to the next as though she can't quite help herself. Obviously she tries to keep a clear-head, she tries to be above her emotions sometimes, but she's still a teenage girl and it's apparently hard for her to be rational. We see it time and time again. She could have easily given up finding Valentine and the Mortal Cup to the Clave but her mother was in danger and she didn't. There isn't another option for her ( "“When you love someone, you don't have a choice. Love takes your choices away." ) She's the one always walking up to danger - the hotel full of vampires, the demon boat, Valentine at Lake Lyn - the minute her friends and family are in danger, Clary is the first to act.
"I don't care," Clary said. "He'd do it for me. Tell me he wouldn't. If I were missing-"
"He'd burn the whole world down till he could dig you out of the ashes. I know," Alec said.
Thinking things through is not exactly a trait that goes hand in hand with her. Clary tends to act first and assume her way is the best way - which we see from the various points where she keeps information from the "adult" figures of the book just in case it jeopardizes the plans she and her friends have concocted. It is also something that runs in the family. Valentine, Jocelyn, and Sebastian all portray the very same stubbornness that Clary has. They always know what is right for them, they would believe in their convictions more than anything. None of them seem to put much stock in the laws themselves, nor in authority figures. When Jace all but banishes Clary from Idris, she ignores his requests even though he is something of her mentor. He's wrong and she's right. Because of this she might come across as flighty to other characters in the game. But there are no two ways about it, Clary will always be involved in whatever is going on. She will always want to help. She can't sit back and watch others get into danger without trying to do something.
She had no recollection, later, of having decided what to do next, or of having hunted for something to wear, but somehow she was hurrying down the stairs, dressed in shadowhunter gear, the letter in one hand and the chain with the ring clasped hastily around her throat.
Despite how she reacts to the Clave ( essentially a Shadowhunter 'government' ), Clary does have a sense of justice that seems deep-seated in herself. She works for them because they are essentially the rulers of everything in the world she wants to be part of. If she can help them win a war, she will. But she won't help them endanger her loved ones. When the Inquisitor goes against Jace, and when later they believe he is a lost cause and to be killed, Clary is the one with the loudest voice arguing this. She does a great many things to protect him from them, even going as far as to hand him over to Sebastian in City of Lost Souls. She rallies against the motto the law is hard but it is the law, but she is not above righteous anger herself. Clary's moral compass in the beginning is very black and white, good versus evil, in a way that she would find it difficult to forgive someone who acted cruelly and maliciously if they were completely and utterly in control of their actions. Her reactions to Sebastian, her hatred and her disgust are pure things. She despises him despite the fact that she knows he was raised by Valentine - something she'd tried to help Jace with - he is tainted by a greater evil. This suggests that she has a little bit of naivete in her.
"I don't care what you think. You're not my brother," Clary said. "You're a murderer."
"I really don't see how those things cancel each other out," said Sebastian.
He has killed people without mercy, because that was how he was raised. They share the same blood and the same personality traits, but to Clary, Sebastian is utterly evil and without help at this point.
Although, as time progresses, Clary seems to lose that particular trait a little - especially when it concerns who she loves. She eventually swallows down what is essentially pride and goes to the Seelie Queen to try and bargain for a way to get Jace back. (" The blood of heaven binds you," said the Queen.'Blood calls to blood, under the skin. But love and blood are not the same." / "Riddles," Clary said angrily. "Do you even mean anything when you talk like that?" ) The distrust and dislike of the Faerie Queen isn't something any of the characters hide, but because Clary is desperate she swallows that down to get help. We also see this throughout City of Fallen Angels - her constant dilemma over finally having what she wants versus the moral implications. Though in game she won't have gotten this far, it shows the potential for her black and white world to become a lot more grey. Clary won't be afraid of dealing with the murkier side of things if it means she can find a way to help others.
Even with this, Clary is naturally trusting. She would rather see the good in someone than the bad. If someone does not act against her then she believes them to be good. She tends to be encouraging and believing of the people around her more often than not. People ( who are not Sebastian ) deserve second chances. This doesn't mean that anyone within her inner circle is beyond reproach though. Clary is feisty, she is happy to argue with Jace when she thinks he's being stupid, when he takes risks. She can fight with him over the important things while letting the little ones slide.
One of Clary's main strengths is her ability to love. Throughout the books that remains a constant. Though she likes to come across as an abrasive, sarcastic creature, her deep-rooted sense of family and friendship sticks. She always goes to great and desperate lengths for the people she cares about; her mother, Simon, Jace. This wilful urge to protect often gets her and the people around her into serious trouble but it's the one thing she doesn't temper down or try to change. Though it holds negative connotations, the inability to be rational for one, it's a factor that defines her. She's loyal to a fault. When the angel Ithuriel offers her a reward for his freedom, Clary doesn't ask for a way to end the war or for fame and wealth. She asks for Jace to be brought back to life, the boy she is helplessly in love with. She only wants him back.
She could ask for anything, she thought dizzily, anything--an end to pain or world hunger or disease, or for peace on earth. But then again, perhaps these things weren't in the power of angels to grant, or they would already have been granted. And perhaps people were supposed to find these things for themselves.
Her relationship with Jace also shows off how little she thinks about the final outcome. He becomes her whole entire world throughout the books, a dependency that sticks even though she can take care of herself. She allows herself to be caught up in him regardless of whether it is for the best. Often Clary's thoughts turn to him, how he would think or what he would do in certain situations. She finds it hard to let go of him - feeling as though her destiny is with Jace and Jace alone. Even when she "discovers" that Jace is her brother, she can't seem to get over it and become just friends with him. She constantly fights with herself on the issue, torn between wanting and knowing that she shouldn't. It causes a divide in her, something that has the capacity to turn dark and wanting but Clary is always thinking about others first, about her mother, or how Jace would eventually destroy himself from the inside if he were to take her.
Something inside Clary cracked and broke, and words came pouring out. 'What do you want me to tell you? The truth? The truth is that I love Simon like I should love you, and I wish he was my brother and you weren't, but I can't do anything about that and neither can you!”
Though she is desperately in love with him, she's still not afraid to call Jace up on things. She gets angry when he tries to put distance between them, tries to stop her from being a part of his world, acting on her own stubborn streak and doing what she thinks is best even though she doesn't have the first clue of the Shadowhunter world. It gets her hurt ( portaling into Lake Lyn instead of Alicante ) but it doesn't change the way she behaves when she thinks she's being put down for being a child, or for growing up a mundane, or just whenever someone thinks they know more than she does.
Clary's main motivation in game with be survival. There are things she won't know. That Jace is not her brother, for one, or that her mother will awaken from her magical sleep, for another. All she'll want is to get back home. This means she'll throw herself in to the deep end, get involved in the hopes that she'll be able to push the balance.
I mean she never talks about herself. I don't know anything about her early life, or her family, or much about how she met my dad. She doesn't even have wedding photos. It's like her life started when she had me.
Clary's relationship with her mother is a complicated one. We see very little of it in the first three books, but it is a huge part of her driving force throughout her narrative. She spends much of her time feeling betrayed by her mother, as though she cut her off from a world she had every right to be a part of. There is an entitlement within Clary. She is a teenage girl who has been searching for something to belong to all this time and she finds out that she has belonged, only that she didn't know it. Clary feels cheated out of this sense of family. To Shadowhunters, that is everything. There are crests and sigils and a passing down of knowledge. Like Clary, Jace also struggles with who he is because he doesn't know who he belongs to - even his ring has the wrong symbol, and it would make sense that she also has the same identity issues. The Fairchild line is there, but she knows nothing about it, and that makes her feel apart from the rest of them.
There is also much that she doesn’t know that characters often believe she should and she feels ill equipped for the place she’s been thrust in, as though Jocelyn should have taught her more to protect her. There is still a guilt there however, because she also knows in her heart of hearts that most of what her mother did was for her protection. Even though she wants to believe her mother overreacted, the truth is always at the forefront of her mind. And that Clary wasn’t able to come back to her before Valentine took her weighs heavily on her. That's why she fights so hard and for so long, to make up for her mistakes.
Both women had their reasons for acting the way they did. Jocelyn was adamant that Valentine was still alive, even when the whole of the Clave thought him dead. She couldn't bear waiting for him to return and so she left what she knew and took both herself and unborn child far away from the Shadow World. Jocelyn is a strong individual - to come up against Valentine like she did, to have a hand in his downfall - it took a force of will that is very much echoed within Clary who repeats those actions years after. She did her very best to keep the news of her second child away from the world, in fact the only people who knew were Luke her closest friend, and Magnus Bane. It would have been hard for her, with a naturally curious child and so she concocted a story, a tale of a heroic veteran and an unfortunate death, gave Clary someone whom she could look up to. This leaves Clary almost cast adrift when she finds out. It's as though her sense of identity is conflicted. She has no idea who she is, nor who any of the people she trusted are. It leaves her without sight. And in a world where sight is the most important thing, she feels lesser. ( "I'm not blind, you know." / "Oh, but you are," said Jace. ) Even her last name is a portmanteau, a mixture of Fairchild, and of Gray after Tessa.
Jocelyn made everything in their lives Mundane, without magic. She had hoped that her daughter would be born with a 'blind' inner eye, that she would be like the rarest of Shadowhunter children and not be able to see the Shadow World. That turned out not to be the case when she came across Clary teasing a pixie in their garden. Clary has always been somewhat mischievous and there's a sense that Jocelyn knew without help her daughter would find her way into the world either way. Panicked, Jocelyn was forced to take her to Magnus Bane, the most powerful Warlock in Brooklyn. Her plan was to originally cripple Clary’s inner eye, but when Magnus told her that it would kill her daughter, she then had him place a lock upon her mind so that everything she saw she soon forgot. This had to be redone every two years, meaning that Jocelyn was always very cautious with Clary, and from her daughter's perspective, more than a little overbearing. She thinks it's typical mom stuff, keeping her to a curfew, disregarding her summer plans etc. It means that perhaps Clary is not as perceptive to her mother's unhappiness as she'd like to be.
There is obviously a disconnect between mother and daughter and their wishes. Both are yearning for a life they can't have. Jocelyn is seen reading books about fairies and magic and painting wild, vivid landscapes. But the only real thing she keeps from her old life is a lock of her son's hair. She even goes as far as to cover up her runes. There is nothing they have that could be traced back to the Shadow World, bar Clary herself. The news reaches Jocelyn of Valentines return long before it gets to the Clave, and with Magnus’ spell unravelling and the Warlock out of the country, Jocelyn conspires to get Clary out of New York. She lies, of course, citing that she needs the rest and space to think. But Clary is a teenager, and quick to anger. She has a fiery temper and with her mother's lack of explanation to her actions, she sees her as being controlling and cruel. They argue in the brief time they're together, Clary storming out and ignoring her calls. To her, it would seem like Jocelyn has her in a cage. That her actions are unfair. She won't allow her young daughter the freedom she so craves. Even during the third book, when Amatis reacts with fear at seeing Clary in her shadowhunter gear, Jocelyn’s disapproval is brought up and railed against. She just can’t see why she would have hidden it the way she did. It shows Clary is by far the more stubborn and pigheaded. She wants to be a part of it, she craves it like she craves nothing else. They still class once they're reunited, and do so for the rest of the series. It's a case of a mother wanting what's best for her daughter and her daughter wanting to make her own choices.
That doesn’t mean that Clary does not love her. In fact, we still see a childlike need and yearning within her. ( “Mom!” she shreaked. “ Where are you? Mommy!” She hadn’t called Jocelyn “Mommy” since she was eight. ) When Clary’s past starts to unravel before her, she begins to question just how much Jocelyn has hidden from her. There is the man who is her father, the world she belongs to, the brother she had no idea she had. Clary feels almost adrift without her around to answer her questions. And she has many of them. She feels slighted and eschewed out of a place within this magical world, yes, but she also feels guilt that there’s so much of her that she doesn’t know. How could she not? Even Simon had noticed the criss-crossing of her Rune scars on her skin, but Clary had been blind to it. That her mother also drank a potion to put her into a coma - to keep the whereabouts of the Cup away from Valentine and to protect Clary - leaves her feeling lost and almost abandoned. She isn’t there to guide her, meaning that most of her actions are those of a frightened teen.
So we see her set off on a desperate mission, first to rescue her from Valentine, then to bring her out of her magical coma. Both the Fairchild women are prone to a love that is far stronger than anything. Clary would stop at nothing to find a way to bring her back, and it’s that which moves her constantly.
”You have a dark heart in you, Valentine’s daughter.”
Her father is also of significant impact upon her. As we’ve seen before, Valentine is a cruel and calculating man. Valentine is the man who faked his own death and the death of his son, Jonathan, and burnt the Fairchild Manor to the ground killing Clary’s only remaining grandparents. He also killed Michael Wayland and his son to provide evidence for this and took both Jace, and Jonathan to separate homes. He played them both and raised them into two very similar, but distinct young men.
Clary can only see the cruel things he’s done, the way he’s broken down Jace and left him believing he is something monstrous. Valentine is the cause of it, is the one who taught Jace to be wicked and cruel and to not get attached because love is the thing that destroys you. She sees only the way Valentine controls the people around him and she hates him for it. In many ways though, they are both similar. Clary is as vicious as he is when provoked, when the things she loves are taken away from her. He’s the one who takes her mother, and the one who convinces Jace he is broken and the only reason he loves her is because he is a monster. So her hatred for him burns her up. In a way, Clary can’t see the wide reaching things Valentine has set in motion, stopping him is more about protecting her family than it is about saving the world.
Clary's breath caught. "You said you just wanted to be my brother from now on."
"I lied," he said.
The relationship Clary has with Jace is a complicated one and perhaps the one most focused on in the books. When she first meets him it’s like she’s star struck. He is cocky and loud and obnoxious and everything she knows she shouldn’t want. But there’s is a back and forth that seems to bring out something in both of them. Jace is a boy who holds himself apart from the rest of the world, cool and cruel and too aloof for most, but with Clary he seems to change, bit by bit until he’s someone who can love her. It's like being able to tame a wild beast, and with so long spent wanting something more exhilarating, it makes sense she'd fall for him. She often tries to be the one to reach him where others have failed. She believes she understands him better than his adopted siblings. Perhaps it's because she's an outsider looking in, and like Jace, doesn't feel like she really belongs to anything. Or it could be just that they gravitate towards each other and that feeling, the one of excitement and empathy and love is too hard for her to ignore. But by the end of the first book, that's all quickly dashed.
It’s an easy weapon for Valentine. He has raised Jace after all so here is the son who he destroyed and the daughter who ran away. Valentine is the one to notice their affection straight away, the way each of them reach for the other, try to protect each other. It is new and passionate and all-consuming and Clary mentions more than once that she can't exactly explain it. There’s is a sudden and strong kind of love that sweeps her along with it and with the news that they are siblings, a moral dilemma. They both try to close themselves off from the love they have for each other, morph it into something that is acceptable and less dangerous. Clary is the one with the firmest beliefs in it - she spends much of her time reminding Jace that they share a mother, as though she is the point that they should focus on. Not themselves, nor Valentine. If they could put aside their wants and save Jocelyn then they could be a family together. And yet, she also struggles with it. She finds herself trying to force her feelings - she 'dates' Simon for much of the second book because he's the safer option. But her jealousies and her needs are strong.
When they are within the Seelie Court, the Fairy Queen tricks Clary into consuming fairy food. It means she's granted one request for them, or Clary will have to stay with them forever. What she asks is that Clary kiss the one whose heart she most desires. Fairies thrive off manipulation and emotional pain and she knows full well that Clary - despite pushing everything as far down as she can - wants Jace more than she can bear. There’s a physical reaction within her, one that being so young feels new and exciting, she believes she belongs with Jace and her body follows that up.
This transmutes itself into something that can be both all consuming and violent. They argue for much of the books, fights that get out of hand and end up in physical violence. Jace is the one who originally thinks they should still be together, he tries to tell her that they can run away from it all and start afresh where no one knows who they really are. But Clary disagrees. She holds too much of a stake on how people see her - even from the very beginning when he believed her to be a little girl. So she tells him that it's wrong and tells herself that it is too. She tries to convince them both of this. And when she starts to agree with him - that they should run away together - he’s the one who settles firmly on the sibling side of things. They never seem to match up in their motivations and beliefs. Like a roundabout, one is always on a different side from the other.
When Jace believes the only reason he loves her is because of his poisoned 'demon' blood, Clary is the first person to fight against that. She believes in him and her love for him makes her want to protect him from being unhappy. While she doesn’t want him to part from her or to see other people, she does want the best for him. She’s still young and it means she isn’t exactly clued in on what the right thing to do is. She’s always walking a line where the both of them will get hurt, and the fallout will be felt by their wider group. But she cares too much for Jace. She wants to be the one who saves him, who doesn’t simply accept his black moods as the status quo. Clary wants to be the one who tries to show him that he isn't broken inside, that his love isn't a wicked thing. Even, and especially when, she knows it’s morally wrong - she doesn’t think he is. She's constantly to-ing and fro-ing from what she thinks is right and what she feels in her heart of hearts.
"I've only ever loved three people in my life," She said. "My mom and Luke, and you."
Simon is another very important person in Clary's life. They have been friends since they were six and it's clear that Clary couldn't imagine her life without him. She would defend him to the end and it's a trait they both share. They're close, and they care a lot about each other, and throughout the books they always seem to orbit each other. He's the one she does the most extreme things for - walking into a vampire den to save him, taking on the clave, placing the Mark of Cain on his skin to protect him during the war -. Clary would do anything to keep him safe. Their relationship is one that’s quirky and shows both her playful side and her youthful vulnerability. Simon is the one constantly making sure she can handle the load she’s taking on and the one who often shoots Jace down for hurting her feelings.
But while her friendship with Simon is one that highlights her strengths, it also lets us examine her weaknesses. Up to her canon point, it definitely can't be said that she's a perfect friend to Simon, often pushing him aside in favour of spending more time around the Institute and around Jace. But it’s also very clearly a case of wanting to have your cake and eat it too, Clary treats his interest in Isabelle with jealousy, but shuns his advances towards her. She doesn't understand his feelings for her because they're simply Simon. It’s as though she wants him for herself, but she doesn’t want the complication of a love affair on top of it. She doesn’t want him to move on and leave her behind, but she also wants her freedom. Other characters are often pointing out that it’s cruel to keep him hanging on, but she either doesn’t see it the same way or refuses to see herself as leading him on.
In City of Ashes ,however, Clary attempts to get over Jace by agreeing to date Simon. In her narrative it’s clear she thinks it’s the right thing to do. Simon is a safe bet, he’s someone people have obviously thought she’d end up with, and not much effort is required on her part. She treats the whole thing with a kind of vague apathy, only showing interest when he instigates it. It's a cruel move, and one not very well thought out but she seems to believe that she can force both herself and him into the situation everyone wants of them. She doesn't find it unappealing either ( Kissing Simon was pleasant. It was a gentle sort of pleasant, like lying in a hammock on a summer day with a book and a glass of lemonade ) but it's not the burn that she craves. Simon is simply someone who makes her happy. who is comfortable and safe, and while she loves him, she’s is simply not in love with him.
All in all, much of Clary's life changes when she finds out she's from Shadowhunter blood. While at her canon point she's not a recognised Shadowhunter, there are things in play that are leading that way. She's stronger by the end of book three, shaping herself into the young woman she wants to be. She's shaking off the expectations and needs that everyone has placed in her, she's thinking for herself and making her own decisions. She's also accepting more and more responsibility for her actions, while seeing the wider scale of things. Clary has begun to be able to see outside of herself. Her responsibilities are beginning to show themselves, she needs to help the Shadowhunters in their war and strike a balance between that and being the girl she was. While she doesn't lose that nerdy, artsy side of her, she is growing older and changing. She's still very much Clary though.
"Clary ... you know; short, red headed, bad temper."
POWER: CANON SKILLS: Clary spent the vast majority of her life thinking she was an ordinary and boring human. It's throughout the books that she discovers that she had been born a Shadowhunter, one of the nephilim ( descendants of angels ). Her mother, a runaway, had spirited her out of Idris at a young age and wiped her memories simply to keep her safe. She'd wanted Clary to grow up "normal" but Clary could see things that other people couldn't, could fight against the incantation placed on her young mind. She could peel back the glamours placed on her world by those who want to stay hidden and see something "other". In this case, it would be snatches of images from the Downworlder world. Faeries in the backyard, the boy in Pandemonium. Clary also has the inate nephilim abilities: superhuman strength, agility, stamina and coordination, though she has to train to get the hang of them as Shadowhunters are supposed to have been taught from early ages. Her fighting skills are not as powerful as Jace or Alec or Isabelle, but throughout the books we see she's able to hold her own against demons, as though tapping into the power under her skin. Anything can be a weapon to the Shadowhunters, so we see a cleverness, a thing that needs quick thinking and the ability to act on the spot.
She is much more 'angel' than the others. Her father, Valentine, fed her pregnant mother the blood of the angel Ithuriel whom he kept captive under the Manor in which they lived. It's been said this was to defeat Jocelyn's depression after he poisoned her first born with the blood of a demon. He had no idea she'd been pregnant a second time. This has led Clary to have her own unique power over magical runes. Runes to the Shadowhunters are markings to assist them in fighting demons. These marks are the angelic symbols that Shadowhunters burn into their skin with steles to grant them their various supernatural abilities. They are part of a complicated runic language given to them by the Angel Raziel to grant them powers beyond those of mundanes. The runes range from anything to the wearer being soundless or being able to heal injury. They each have a corresponding word and meaning subscribed to them and when placed upon the skin, react accordingly. Clary is able to see runes she's never encountered before - in a sort of vision state, they come to her and if she doesn't know exactly what they do, she gets a sense of what they can achieve. Her power is one pretty much unmatched. She's able to create runes that no one of the modern Shadowhunter world have seen before. Such as the Alliance rune. In City of Glass she creates this rune to join Shadowhunters to another downworlder to share each other's powers and help fight against Valentine's army. She was also able to create a rune that made the bearer fearless which she used on Alec Lightwood for the first time. We also see how strong her power is when she brands her best friend Simon with the Mark of Cain, a mark which shocks people as only those of heaven should be able to impart a mark of heaven.
Clary is also able to use a stele - the Shadowhunter weapon of choice. They must be summoned, and can be used to draw the marks the Shadowhunters wear. They are crafted with adamas by the Iron Sisters and vary in design.
CITY POWER: Drawing Creation - Clary is an artist. I'd like for her city power to utilise that. At first it will only be small things she can draw and bring to life, trinkets and the like ( pens, cups, socks etc ). But as time goes on and she gets better at it she can learn how to make more intricate things such as weapons.
I'd also like to limit it to things that are not living.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE: [ At first it takes some getting used to. Clary's had a webcam before, obviously she'd needed one for her nightly meetings with Simon during the latest WoW raid. It's not like the concept is that strange in itself. But it's the fact that it's on her phone that's giving her a little bit of trouble. The first time she'd opened it all she'd been able to see was her face, too up close, worried and freckly. Part of her doesn't even want to inflict that on the general population. But she's had a look through the network by now and it seems to be the done thing. So she goes for it.
The first few seconds are awkward, her frown more pronounced as she checks if it's on, but then her smile clears that all up. ] So, uh, hey? I think I'm using this right. I hope you guys can see me. And also hear me. It would suck if you couldn't. Unless your superpower is lip-reading - which sounds like a bum deal actually. [ Focus, Fray. ] Anyway, I'm Clary. I'm new. I got here like a couple of hours ago and seriously, the welcome committee could be a little better. Which is why I thought this was the best way.
I have a few questions. Mostly about the superhero gig. Can we like change our superhero names? Because I was not expecting that question. I panicked. It's awkward. Also do we need costumes? Do they have to be spandex? Is there a universal law about saving the world in a suit that shows - literally everything - off? [ Nobody wants to see her in a fitted suit, nobody. ]
Also, is there an art supply store around here? Apparently that's part of my gift from the gods or whatever, and I really want to test it out ... although I guess - do they use dollars here? What's the currency in the alternate US? Am I going to get arrested if I pull out my wallet? It would not be a good start to my heroism if I got put in the back of a cop car. Also I think my mom would be able to sense it across the universes, so.
[ A shrug and then a semi-awkward smile. ] Any help would be seriously appreciated. I kind of don't know anyone here.
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE: Once it starts to sink in that there's no way home, then she really starts to panic.
She hadn't thought about it at all during the commotion of arriving, hadn't had the time between taking her file and being ushered to some strange new city with a job and a room in an apartment to her name. She'd been too busy then thinking 'do these people know how old I am', wondering what they got for being over-zealous in their soldiering, knowing that she could barely fend for herself to ask the important questions. Because she'd taken it all in semi-meekly, like she'd been in part of a daze. Like being kidnapped to a different dimension happened to her everyday. And then some people had clued her in. There's no return ticket. It's all one way until maybe a machine or maybe a man says otherwise.
So she's panicking. She can't help it.
Because while she's been assured that time doesn't move here, that she'll go home and she'll have been gone barely a second, it doesn't make any difference. Her world is still pinned on what she can do to help it, on her saving her mom, saving Jace, stopping Valentine. The war is coming and all of her had been hurtling towards it that now she's not she feels strange. Her blood still sings for battle, her heart still beats knowing that she has to win. If she can't then there's nothing. So she doesn't have the time or the patience for all of this. And part of her, a large part if she's honest, wants nothing more than to try portaling out of this place. Of course in all reality it would just open up a huge hole in the building and not through space and time. She probably couldn't do that even if she wished really, really hard. She'd probably just blow up the block and everything in it. But damn is she tempted.
Destruction aside, Clary doesn't really know what she's doing here. Yes, so she's gotten the low-down on the whole hero thing, but that doesn't really explain what she is doing here. Jace would have been a better pick, Jace who can leap whole buildings in a single bound and make quips that would make most comic book writers weep. He'd be good here. He'd fit in. Even Alec with his serious face and tone. But Clary - she can barely get the hang of applying runes to things without drowning ( it's happened twice, she knows there's a record ). She trips over her own feet. She makes the worlds worst decisions and everyone around her gets hurt. What good is she going to do for the people here?
Even her power feels useless. What can she draw? Men with eggplant arms? Cups that have no real impact here? She can see it now, her on top of a building pelting replicas of the Mortal Cup down on some bad guys. It would really make them think twice about being villainous. When that thought comes, she can't help the hysterical burst of laughter that bursts from her as she throws herself back on her bed, rolling over immediately to bury her face in the pillow. It's not hers, not the one she's been sleeping in for years and she feels something of a dull pang at the realisation that her home, the apartment she shared with her mom, it's still not safe. She's had her fair share of stranger beds lately, what's one more?
The worst part is - the worst part is knowing that no one will notice she's gone. Not Amatis, not Luke, not Simon. Jace if he could know would probably be relieved. She does her best not to think about that. And if she wants to find a way out and a way home and help everyone else with her then thinking about Jace should be the last thing she does. Brooding won't help.
... But then again, it is her first day. Nobody's expecting her to don a cape immediately, right?
FINAL NOTES: Inventory
( 1 ) green coat.
( 1 ) pair of jeans.
( 1 ) t-shirt.
( 1 ) pair of boots.
( 1 ) set of underwear.
( 1 ) stele.
( 1 ) witchlight.
( 1 ) seraph blade.
NAME: Sarah
AGE: 27
JOURNAL:
athosingIM / EMAIL: AIM: brokebackmutant / countingcoffeespoons [at] gmail [dot] com
PLURK:
RETURNING: Athos |
desequilibre〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Clary Fray / Shadowhunter.
CHARACTER AGE: 16
SERIES: 'The Mortal Instruments.'
CHRONOLOGY: Book III: City of Glass.
CLASS: Hero.
HOUSING: Please house her with some roommates if possible.
BACKGROUND: Book Series: City of Bones | City of Ashes | City of Glass.
Clary is from a world that is, on the surface, basically the same as modern day Earth. She lives in New York in 2007, she watches TV and uses telephones and public transport. She goes for coffee with her friends and tries to sneak into clubs. To all outward appearances, her world is entirely ordinary.
Beneath this surface lies another world, the world belonging to Shadowhunters. They are a group of people who live in secret, hidden away from the rest. Most ordinary people, including Clary in the beginning, have no idea that they exist and no reason to know. Theirs is a world that lives - ironically enough - in the shadows. Through a system of magic which the characters call ‘runes’, they are able to conceal the existence of their society from ordinary humans, whom the Shadowhunters refer to as ‘Mundanes’. There is a Mundane, or normal world, and there is the Shadowhunter world. And in theory, never should these two meet - the Shadowhunters are supposed to operate within the human world, without being part of the human world. They are supposed to conceal themselves and do their work without anyone noticing that they are there. Because of this, they have a somewhat insular society which is distinct from the human world, and they see themselves as set apart. The important thing for Clary is that, unknown to her, the Shadowhunter world is her world - she is one of them, and belongs as one of their number despite growing up in the ‘Mundane’ world. During the course of her canon, Clary discovers the truth of her birth, and finds herself thrown into the Shadowhunter world despite her own mother’s efforts to keep her from it.
The Shadowhunter world is one that is particularly medieval in some ways. Their weapons are the same as they have always been, they don't use guns or tanks ( mostly because their magic has an explosive relationship with gunpowder ) and they have a very distinct and regimented set of rules and regulations. They live in churches and hallowed grounds. While they are aware of modern living they don't necessarily care for it. Popular culture is beyond them, and while they have some similar amenities - such as electricity and motorbikes - they don't really watch TV. Clary finds that particularly strange as she's grown up all her life in New York. Despite this Clary is shown to have a yearning for another world, through her drawings of princes and magic and strange people. She is someone who feels different and longs to be different, and her discovery of the Shadowhunter world becomes the answer to that longing.
Her first glimpse into their world is seeing a demon in the shape of a young boy vanquished in the back room of a club she often frequents. Clary reacts with horror and fear but that only lasts as long as it takes her to find herself in that sphere again. The next time she comes across the Shadowhunters, her curiosity is a demanding thing as though she is just waiting for the knowledge to unfold itself in her mind. She begins to see things differently - a doll with real fluttering pixie wings, a man with cat eyes - and it’s like the more she looks the more open the world becomes. Despite how startling and strange it is, it sets her on the course of fully realising the person she is. That person is one who can deal with demons in her family home, who can walk into a den of vampires to save her best friend, who can do whatever it takes to get her mother back.
On being thrust into their world, Clary begins to discover the history of her own people, a people that she never even knew existed. The Shadowhunters are human beings originally descended from a man named Jonathan Shadowhunter. The angel Raziel gifted Jonathan with a cup, from which he could drink the angel’s blood. This changed Jonathan, as angel blood is wont to do. Because he drank from the cup, he received certain powers that went beyond a normal human's skill - greater strength and agility, as well as the ability to mark himself with 'runes'. These abilities became a part of Jonathan’s bloodline, and were passed down through the generations until eventually a whole race of people were created. Shadowhunters - also known as Nephilim - are a secret group of people well beyond our own world. They became the appointed warriors of Raziel, chosen because of their strength and skill to protect the Shadow World - more specifically to stop the evil of demons from bleeding out into the universe. They have been chosen to keep the peace as well as protecting both their own people and the Mundanes.
One of their major abilities is the power to create ‘runes’ on their skin. Runes are markings that can be carved into the skin of a Shadowhunter using a weapon called a stele. They are used to grant temporary powers to the Shadowhunter using them, such as the ability to heal quickly, become invisible, or gain clairvoyant sight in battle. Runes can also be drawn on objects - for example to allow the Shadowhunter to see through walls or create a ward to protect a building. Runes are somewhat similar to the idea of a magic spell - they are specific, with each one having its own distinct meaning which must be learned. They are written down in what is known as the Grey Book, much like a traditional grimoire or Book of Shadows. The ability to use them comes from the Shadowhunters’ angelic blood, and they begin to learn this craft from a very young age. There is also an inherent magical power in runes, and they must be handled carefully. For example, copies of the Grey Book are rare because the magic in the steles causes them to burn through the paper they are placed upon. Only Shadowhunters have the strength to withstand them being placed on their bodies, as it would kill a human. This distinct, specific system is a core part of the Shadowhunter tradition - they learn about it from childhood, and runes for them are both a birthright and a study in magic, lore and application of their powers. Runes are something that must be learned.
This is the world into which Clary finds herself thrown. It is structured and built on tradition and study, yet she discovers that she is able to do something unheard of among the Shadowhunters - she is able to create new runes. She is able to see new runic shapes within her mind’s eye, draw them with her stele, and then use them. This is why Clary becomes so important to the Shadowhunters. Only angels are supposed to have this ability. Clary is the first human Shadowhunter to be able to do so. In addition, the runes that she draws are far more powerful than the average Shadowhunter, and despite not having the years of training that they do, she is able to do things with her powers that they cannot - this is why she is exceptional. However, it also clearly makes her different. She is an oddity even among Shadowhunters, and the reason why is something that she must discover during the course of her canon.
By Clary's time the Shadowhunter world is one that is growing in the shadow of a war. Before she was born, a group within the Shadowhunters known as the Circle rose up against the bureaucracy of the Clave. The Clave is their law council, a harsh and regimented set of people who have ruled them almost from the very beginning. Their motto is the law is hard but it is the law. There's very little room for being your own person in that world. At the time of the Uprising, the Clave were aiming to have peace between the races, Shadowhunters and vampires, werewolves, warlocks. They sought to have an Accord that would stop the fighting and allow the groups to live harmoniously together, allowing more time to fight against demons.
Valentine Morgenstern took exception to that. Valentine was a young man who was well educated and charming, he was the type of person who could wrap you around his little finger. Throughout the canon people talk about him as though it were so easy to be caught up in his schemes and it shows with the way he talks and acts. He believes himself to be better, and there is a confidence to him. Though at first the Circle was created to reform Clave law, the death of Valentine's father put an end to that. He no longer wanted to change the Shadow World, but to destroy the Downworlders as well. Valentine was an extremist, he believed that Downworlders ( vampires, werewolves, warlocks ) were demons in human form who should be eliminated to cleanse the world of their evil. He wanted the Shadowhunter race to remain superior and untarnished by those he saw as subpar. He believed that having relationships between the races would ruin what made Shadowhunters ultimately unique. He didn't want a law that bound them in peace, he saw it as an abomination.
During his time in the circle, Valentine began to experiment on both Downworlders and Demons alike. He discovered that if he drank demon blood that it boosted his powers for a short time. Because of this, he summoned the demon Lilith to ask for some of her blood. He planned to use it to make his first unborn child stronger than anyone imagined. It did have some effect - though it turned the child peculiar and gave Jocelyn incredible nightmares, sewing the seeds of her distrust. To soothe Jocelyn's pain, he began feeding her with angel blood ( from an angel he captured around the same time he summonded Lilith), not knowing she was pregnant. He began to use his manipulative powers to warp and change the members of his Circle, making them believe they were doing things for the right reasons, but all the time it was just to gain them more and more power. He hatched a plan with his group, one that would see the end of all Downworlders. He had hoped to trap each of them in the Accord Hall when they were signing the Accords, and use the ocassion to slaughther them all. By this point Jocelyn no longer trusted her husband, and with the help of Luke and Ragnor Fell, was able to thwart the attack by warning the Downworlders and having backup for them. The result was the death of most of the Circle members and the Downworlders. This event became infamous in Shadowhunter history, and was talked about for many years after.
As a result of Valentin’s actions, by the time Clary discovers them, the Shadowhunters have become a wary, suspicious people. They see outsiders as a danger, and in particular, are very wary of anyone who might speak out against the Clave. Anyone who dared to do so would be thought of as another Valentine. By the beginning of Clary’s story there are rumours of Valentine's return. This is something that takes place just as Clary is beginning to find her feet in the Shadowhunter world. To her, their world is a place of smoke and mirrors and tricks, like shadows at the corner of her mind. She is both wary and in awe of it.
Clary spends most of her time trying to find the balance between her two worlds - the human world, and the new Shadowhunter world. She struggles with keeping her friend Simon from feeling abandoned. She contends with the knowledge that her mother had deliberately kept her away from the Shadowhunter world for all of her life, and tries to balance that against the deep deep desire she has to be a part of it. She quickly finds herself wrapped up in their war with Valentine. He is once more after power, but this time he believes he can have it by gaining access to what are known as the Mortal Instruments ( the Cup, the mirror, the sword ). He has spies everywhere, and his ambition remains much as what it always was - to create a superior master race of powerful Shadowhunters. Clary's aim is to stop him and rescue her mother, who he has captured. There are many obstacles in her way; the way the other Shadowhunters treat her, Isabelle and Alec's disbelief because they do not see her as one of them, Jace's refusal to be close to her because of his feelings, the Clave seeing her as Valentine's daughter - but she does her very best to learn more and more and stop him as well as she can. As time goes on, Clary begins to adapt to this world which at first seemed so strange. She begins to find herself within it. She even believes there's a sense of rightness to her when she puts Amatis' gear, as though she is finally coming into the woman she should be. While she doesn't necessarily see herself as a saviour, she's quite eager to try, and it's only through Jace's fear that she keeps herself and her power a secret.
More than ever the Shadowhunter world of panic and distrust, one that is afraid of seeing the old rules and institutions crumbling.
PERSONALITY:
Clary Fray is like the typical embodiment of a modern teenage girl. She likes quirky bands and anime, uses sarcasm as a weapon, draws to pass the time, and is the owner of several adolescent identity issues. When we first meet her she's searching for something, anything to bring her out of her dull and boring normal life. Whether that be clubs or boys or the usual normal list of 'edgy' things. It's clear that she's getting that itch to shrug off the last vestiges of childhood and become someone new. She acts against her mother's protection and typically spends her time shrugging off her concerns and her worries. Adults are never right, and Clary is often found making her own choices no matter what seems the most reasonable or obvious option. She's like every young teenager, trying to find out who she is underneath all of the stuff that's been placed on her by people before. She only has her mother, she doesn't know who her father is only ( or so she believes at the time ) that he was a good man who died a noble death. She's too much like her family, stubborn and headstrong and easy to anger.
Her attitude and the way she sees herself is incredibly self-deprecating. It can easily be seen as a weakness. Clary states time and time again that she doesn't think she is interesting or beautiful or worthwhile. She doesn't feel special. That she needs something to prove her worth indicates a lack of self-esteem. She's often comparing herself to other girls ( her mom, Isabelle, Aline ) and doesn't see why anyone would want or care for her. When Jace initially shows an interest she seems to think it's a game for him, and later in the books, she almost considers him leaving her to be an eventuality. She has a list of reasons why she's not attractive, she's too short, too redheaded, too freckly, and she's often found going over and over the list in her head. She has the typical adolescent way of picking herself and her abilities apart. She is always comparing her skills to other people too, her artistic talent against her mothers, her Shadowhunter training against Isabelle's flawless style. Clary often seeks something that is unique and hers, something that can't be stacked up against someone else's. When she finds out who she truly is, and what Valentine did to her, there's a sense of horror there, but also a feeling of understanding. He fed her mother angel blood when she was pregnant and that gives Clary an edge on most Shadowhunters. She is the only who who can make up her own runes, or create ones with as much power as she does. She isn't necessarily human, she is something other, and something apart from the Shadowhunter world. There is a relief inside that knowledge.
She is also very wilful. She's passionate and rash, jumping into things even when her safety net is threatened. This is both a strength and a weakness. She spends her time pinging from one danger to the next as though she can't quite help herself. Obviously she tries to keep a clear-head, she tries to be above her emotions sometimes, but she's still a teenage girl and it's apparently hard for her to be rational. We see it time and time again. She could have easily given up finding Valentine and the Mortal Cup to the Clave but her mother was in danger and she didn't. There isn't another option for her ( "“When you love someone, you don't have a choice. Love takes your choices away." ) She's the one always walking up to danger - the hotel full of vampires, the demon boat, Valentine at Lake Lyn - the minute her friends and family are in danger, Clary is the first to act.
"He'd burn the whole world down till he could dig you out of the ashes. I know," Alec said.
Thinking things through is not exactly a trait that goes hand in hand with her. Clary tends to act first and assume her way is the best way - which we see from the various points where she keeps information from the "adult" figures of the book just in case it jeopardizes the plans she and her friends have concocted. It is also something that runs in the family. Valentine, Jocelyn, and Sebastian all portray the very same stubbornness that Clary has. They always know what is right for them, they would believe in their convictions more than anything. None of them seem to put much stock in the laws themselves, nor in authority figures. When Jace all but banishes Clary from Idris, she ignores his requests even though he is something of her mentor. He's wrong and she's right. Because of this she might come across as flighty to other characters in the game. But there are no two ways about it, Clary will always be involved in whatever is going on. She will always want to help. She can't sit back and watch others get into danger without trying to do something.
Despite how she reacts to the Clave ( essentially a Shadowhunter 'government' ), Clary does have a sense of justice that seems deep-seated in herself. She works for them because they are essentially the rulers of everything in the world she wants to be part of. If she can help them win a war, she will. But she won't help them endanger her loved ones. When the Inquisitor goes against Jace, and when later they believe he is a lost cause and to be killed, Clary is the one with the loudest voice arguing this. She does a great many things to protect him from them, even going as far as to hand him over to Sebastian in City of Lost Souls. She rallies against the motto the law is hard but it is the law, but she is not above righteous anger herself. Clary's moral compass in the beginning is very black and white, good versus evil, in a way that she would find it difficult to forgive someone who acted cruelly and maliciously if they were completely and utterly in control of their actions. Her reactions to Sebastian, her hatred and her disgust are pure things. She despises him despite the fact that she knows he was raised by Valentine - something she'd tried to help Jace with - he is tainted by a greater evil. This suggests that she has a little bit of naivete in her.
"I really don't see how those things cancel each other out," said Sebastian.
He has killed people without mercy, because that was how he was raised. They share the same blood and the same personality traits, but to Clary, Sebastian is utterly evil and without help at this point.
Although, as time progresses, Clary seems to lose that particular trait a little - especially when it concerns who she loves. She eventually swallows down what is essentially pride and goes to the Seelie Queen to try and bargain for a way to get Jace back. (" The blood of heaven binds you," said the Queen.'Blood calls to blood, under the skin. But love and blood are not the same." / "Riddles," Clary said angrily. "Do you even mean anything when you talk like that?" ) The distrust and dislike of the Faerie Queen isn't something any of the characters hide, but because Clary is desperate she swallows that down to get help. We also see this throughout City of Fallen Angels - her constant dilemma over finally having what she wants versus the moral implications. Though in game she won't have gotten this far, it shows the potential for her black and white world to become a lot more grey. Clary won't be afraid of dealing with the murkier side of things if it means she can find a way to help others.
Even with this, Clary is naturally trusting. She would rather see the good in someone than the bad. If someone does not act against her then she believes them to be good. She tends to be encouraging and believing of the people around her more often than not. People ( who are not Sebastian ) deserve second chances. This doesn't mean that anyone within her inner circle is beyond reproach though. Clary is feisty, she is happy to argue with Jace when she thinks he's being stupid, when he takes risks. She can fight with him over the important things while letting the little ones slide.
One of Clary's main strengths is her ability to love. Throughout the books that remains a constant. Though she likes to come across as an abrasive, sarcastic creature, her deep-rooted sense of family and friendship sticks. She always goes to great and desperate lengths for the people she cares about; her mother, Simon, Jace. This wilful urge to protect often gets her and the people around her into serious trouble but it's the one thing she doesn't temper down or try to change. Though it holds negative connotations, the inability to be rational for one, it's a factor that defines her. She's loyal to a fault. When the angel Ithuriel offers her a reward for his freedom, Clary doesn't ask for a way to end the war or for fame and wealth. She asks for Jace to be brought back to life, the boy she is helplessly in love with. She only wants him back.
Her relationship with Jace also shows off how little she thinks about the final outcome. He becomes her whole entire world throughout the books, a dependency that sticks even though she can take care of herself. She allows herself to be caught up in him regardless of whether it is for the best. Often Clary's thoughts turn to him, how he would think or what he would do in certain situations. She finds it hard to let go of him - feeling as though her destiny is with Jace and Jace alone. Even when she "discovers" that Jace is her brother, she can't seem to get over it and become just friends with him. She constantly fights with herself on the issue, torn between wanting and knowing that she shouldn't. It causes a divide in her, something that has the capacity to turn dark and wanting but Clary is always thinking about others first, about her mother, or how Jace would eventually destroy himself from the inside if he were to take her.
Though she is desperately in love with him, she's still not afraid to call Jace up on things. She gets angry when he tries to put distance between them, tries to stop her from being a part of his world, acting on her own stubborn streak and doing what she thinks is best even though she doesn't have the first clue of the Shadowhunter world. It gets her hurt ( portaling into Lake Lyn instead of Alicante ) but it doesn't change the way she behaves when she thinks she's being put down for being a child, or for growing up a mundane, or just whenever someone thinks they know more than she does.
Clary's main motivation in game with be survival. There are things she won't know. That Jace is not her brother, for one, or that her mother will awaken from her magical sleep, for another. All she'll want is to get back home. This means she'll throw herself in to the deep end, get involved in the hopes that she'll be able to push the balance.
Clary's relationship with her mother is a complicated one. We see very little of it in the first three books, but it is a huge part of her driving force throughout her narrative. She spends much of her time feeling betrayed by her mother, as though she cut her off from a world she had every right to be a part of. There is an entitlement within Clary. She is a teenage girl who has been searching for something to belong to all this time and she finds out that she has belonged, only that she didn't know it. Clary feels cheated out of this sense of family. To Shadowhunters, that is everything. There are crests and sigils and a passing down of knowledge. Like Clary, Jace also struggles with who he is because he doesn't know who he belongs to - even his ring has the wrong symbol, and it would make sense that she also has the same identity issues. The Fairchild line is there, but she knows nothing about it, and that makes her feel apart from the rest of them.
There is also much that she doesn’t know that characters often believe she should and she feels ill equipped for the place she’s been thrust in, as though Jocelyn should have taught her more to protect her. There is still a guilt there however, because she also knows in her heart of hearts that most of what her mother did was for her protection. Even though she wants to believe her mother overreacted, the truth is always at the forefront of her mind. And that Clary wasn’t able to come back to her before Valentine took her weighs heavily on her. That's why she fights so hard and for so long, to make up for her mistakes.
Both women had their reasons for acting the way they did. Jocelyn was adamant that Valentine was still alive, even when the whole of the Clave thought him dead. She couldn't bear waiting for him to return and so she left what she knew and took both herself and unborn child far away from the Shadow World. Jocelyn is a strong individual - to come up against Valentine like she did, to have a hand in his downfall - it took a force of will that is very much echoed within Clary who repeats those actions years after. She did her very best to keep the news of her second child away from the world, in fact the only people who knew were Luke her closest friend, and Magnus Bane. It would have been hard for her, with a naturally curious child and so she concocted a story, a tale of a heroic veteran and an unfortunate death, gave Clary someone whom she could look up to. This leaves Clary almost cast adrift when she finds out. It's as though her sense of identity is conflicted. She has no idea who she is, nor who any of the people she trusted are. It leaves her without sight. And in a world where sight is the most important thing, she feels lesser. ( "I'm not blind, you know." / "Oh, but you are," said Jace. ) Even her last name is a portmanteau, a mixture of Fairchild, and of Gray after Tessa.
Jocelyn made everything in their lives Mundane, without magic. She had hoped that her daughter would be born with a 'blind' inner eye, that she would be like the rarest of Shadowhunter children and not be able to see the Shadow World. That turned out not to be the case when she came across Clary teasing a pixie in their garden. Clary has always been somewhat mischievous and there's a sense that Jocelyn knew without help her daughter would find her way into the world either way. Panicked, Jocelyn was forced to take her to Magnus Bane, the most powerful Warlock in Brooklyn. Her plan was to originally cripple Clary’s inner eye, but when Magnus told her that it would kill her daughter, she then had him place a lock upon her mind so that everything she saw she soon forgot. This had to be redone every two years, meaning that Jocelyn was always very cautious with Clary, and from her daughter's perspective, more than a little overbearing. She thinks it's typical mom stuff, keeping her to a curfew, disregarding her summer plans etc. It means that perhaps Clary is not as perceptive to her mother's unhappiness as she'd like to be.
There is obviously a disconnect between mother and daughter and their wishes. Both are yearning for a life they can't have. Jocelyn is seen reading books about fairies and magic and painting wild, vivid landscapes. But the only real thing she keeps from her old life is a lock of her son's hair. She even goes as far as to cover up her runes. There is nothing they have that could be traced back to the Shadow World, bar Clary herself. The news reaches Jocelyn of Valentines return long before it gets to the Clave, and with Magnus’ spell unravelling and the Warlock out of the country, Jocelyn conspires to get Clary out of New York. She lies, of course, citing that she needs the rest and space to think. But Clary is a teenager, and quick to anger. She has a fiery temper and with her mother's lack of explanation to her actions, she sees her as being controlling and cruel. They argue in the brief time they're together, Clary storming out and ignoring her calls. To her, it would seem like Jocelyn has her in a cage. That her actions are unfair. She won't allow her young daughter the freedom she so craves. Even during the third book, when Amatis reacts with fear at seeing Clary in her shadowhunter gear, Jocelyn’s disapproval is brought up and railed against. She just can’t see why she would have hidden it the way she did. It shows Clary is by far the more stubborn and pigheaded. She wants to be a part of it, she craves it like she craves nothing else. They still class once they're reunited, and do so for the rest of the series. It's a case of a mother wanting what's best for her daughter and her daughter wanting to make her own choices.
That doesn’t mean that Clary does not love her. In fact, we still see a childlike need and yearning within her. ( “Mom!” she shreaked. “ Where are you? Mommy!” She hadn’t called Jocelyn “Mommy” since she was eight. ) When Clary’s past starts to unravel before her, she begins to question just how much Jocelyn has hidden from her. There is the man who is her father, the world she belongs to, the brother she had no idea she had. Clary feels almost adrift without her around to answer her questions. And she has many of them. She feels slighted and eschewed out of a place within this magical world, yes, but she also feels guilt that there’s so much of her that she doesn’t know. How could she not? Even Simon had noticed the criss-crossing of her Rune scars on her skin, but Clary had been blind to it. That her mother also drank a potion to put her into a coma - to keep the whereabouts of the Cup away from Valentine and to protect Clary - leaves her feeling lost and almost abandoned. She isn’t there to guide her, meaning that most of her actions are those of a frightened teen.
So we see her set off on a desperate mission, first to rescue her from Valentine, then to bring her out of her magical coma. Both the Fairchild women are prone to a love that is far stronger than anything. Clary would stop at nothing to find a way to bring her back, and it’s that which moves her constantly.
Her father is also of significant impact upon her. As we’ve seen before, Valentine is a cruel and calculating man. Valentine is the man who faked his own death and the death of his son, Jonathan, and burnt the Fairchild Manor to the ground killing Clary’s only remaining grandparents. He also killed Michael Wayland and his son to provide evidence for this and took both Jace, and Jonathan to separate homes. He played them both and raised them into two very similar, but distinct young men.
Clary can only see the cruel things he’s done, the way he’s broken down Jace and left him believing he is something monstrous. Valentine is the cause of it, is the one who taught Jace to be wicked and cruel and to not get attached because love is the thing that destroys you. She sees only the way Valentine controls the people around him and she hates him for it. In many ways though, they are both similar. Clary is as vicious as he is when provoked, when the things she loves are taken away from her. He’s the one who takes her mother, and the one who convinces Jace he is broken and the only reason he loves her is because he is a monster. So her hatred for him burns her up. In a way, Clary can’t see the wide reaching things Valentine has set in motion, stopping him is more about protecting her family than it is about saving the world.
"I lied," he said.
The relationship Clary has with Jace is a complicated one and perhaps the one most focused on in the books. When she first meets him it’s like she’s star struck. He is cocky and loud and obnoxious and everything she knows she shouldn’t want. But there’s is a back and forth that seems to bring out something in both of them. Jace is a boy who holds himself apart from the rest of the world, cool and cruel and too aloof for most, but with Clary he seems to change, bit by bit until he’s someone who can love her. It's like being able to tame a wild beast, and with so long spent wanting something more exhilarating, it makes sense she'd fall for him. She often tries to be the one to reach him where others have failed. She believes she understands him better than his adopted siblings. Perhaps it's because she's an outsider looking in, and like Jace, doesn't feel like she really belongs to anything. Or it could be just that they gravitate towards each other and that feeling, the one of excitement and empathy and love is too hard for her to ignore. But by the end of the first book, that's all quickly dashed.
It’s an easy weapon for Valentine. He has raised Jace after all so here is the son who he destroyed and the daughter who ran away. Valentine is the one to notice their affection straight away, the way each of them reach for the other, try to protect each other. It is new and passionate and all-consuming and Clary mentions more than once that she can't exactly explain it. There’s is a sudden and strong kind of love that sweeps her along with it and with the news that they are siblings, a moral dilemma. They both try to close themselves off from the love they have for each other, morph it into something that is acceptable and less dangerous. Clary is the one with the firmest beliefs in it - she spends much of her time reminding Jace that they share a mother, as though she is the point that they should focus on. Not themselves, nor Valentine. If they could put aside their wants and save Jocelyn then they could be a family together. And yet, she also struggles with it. She finds herself trying to force her feelings - she 'dates' Simon for much of the second book because he's the safer option. But her jealousies and her needs are strong.
When they are within the Seelie Court, the Fairy Queen tricks Clary into consuming fairy food. It means she's granted one request for them, or Clary will have to stay with them forever. What she asks is that Clary kiss the one whose heart she most desires. Fairies thrive off manipulation and emotional pain and she knows full well that Clary - despite pushing everything as far down as she can - wants Jace more than she can bear. There’s a physical reaction within her, one that being so young feels new and exciting, she believes she belongs with Jace and her body follows that up.
This transmutes itself into something that can be both all consuming and violent. They argue for much of the books, fights that get out of hand and end up in physical violence. Jace is the one who originally thinks they should still be together, he tries to tell her that they can run away from it all and start afresh where no one knows who they really are. But Clary disagrees. She holds too much of a stake on how people see her - even from the very beginning when he believed her to be a little girl. So she tells him that it's wrong and tells herself that it is too. She tries to convince them both of this. And when she starts to agree with him - that they should run away together - he’s the one who settles firmly on the sibling side of things. They never seem to match up in their motivations and beliefs. Like a roundabout, one is always on a different side from the other.
When Jace believes the only reason he loves her is because of his poisoned 'demon' blood, Clary is the first person to fight against that. She believes in him and her love for him makes her want to protect him from being unhappy. While she doesn’t want him to part from her or to see other people, she does want the best for him. She’s still young and it means she isn’t exactly clued in on what the right thing to do is. She’s always walking a line where the both of them will get hurt, and the fallout will be felt by their wider group. But she cares too much for Jace. She wants to be the one who saves him, who doesn’t simply accept his black moods as the status quo. Clary wants to be the one who tries to show him that he isn't broken inside, that his love isn't a wicked thing. Even, and especially when, she knows it’s morally wrong - she doesn’t think he is. She's constantly to-ing and fro-ing from what she thinks is right and what she feels in her heart of hearts.
Simon is another very important person in Clary's life. They have been friends since they were six and it's clear that Clary couldn't imagine her life without him. She would defend him to the end and it's a trait they both share. They're close, and they care a lot about each other, and throughout the books they always seem to orbit each other. He's the one she does the most extreme things for - walking into a vampire den to save him, taking on the clave, placing the Mark of Cain on his skin to protect him during the war -. Clary would do anything to keep him safe. Their relationship is one that’s quirky and shows both her playful side and her youthful vulnerability. Simon is the one constantly making sure she can handle the load she’s taking on and the one who often shoots Jace down for hurting her feelings.
But while her friendship with Simon is one that highlights her strengths, it also lets us examine her weaknesses. Up to her canon point, it definitely can't be said that she's a perfect friend to Simon, often pushing him aside in favour of spending more time around the Institute and around Jace. But it’s also very clearly a case of wanting to have your cake and eat it too, Clary treats his interest in Isabelle with jealousy, but shuns his advances towards her. She doesn't understand his feelings for her because they're simply Simon. It’s as though she wants him for herself, but she doesn’t want the complication of a love affair on top of it. She doesn’t want him to move on and leave her behind, but she also wants her freedom. Other characters are often pointing out that it’s cruel to keep him hanging on, but she either doesn’t see it the same way or refuses to see herself as leading him on.
In City of Ashes ,however, Clary attempts to get over Jace by agreeing to date Simon. In her narrative it’s clear she thinks it’s the right thing to do. Simon is a safe bet, he’s someone people have obviously thought she’d end up with, and not much effort is required on her part. She treats the whole thing with a kind of vague apathy, only showing interest when he instigates it. It's a cruel move, and one not very well thought out but she seems to believe that she can force both herself and him into the situation everyone wants of them. She doesn't find it unappealing either ( Kissing Simon was pleasant. It was a gentle sort of pleasant, like lying in a hammock on a summer day with a book and a glass of lemonade ) but it's not the burn that she craves. Simon is simply someone who makes her happy. who is comfortable and safe, and while she loves him, she’s is simply not in love with him.
All in all, much of Clary's life changes when she finds out she's from Shadowhunter blood. While at her canon point she's not a recognised Shadowhunter, there are things in play that are leading that way. She's stronger by the end of book three, shaping herself into the young woman she wants to be. She's shaking off the expectations and needs that everyone has placed in her, she's thinking for herself and making her own decisions. She's also accepting more and more responsibility for her actions, while seeing the wider scale of things. Clary has begun to be able to see outside of herself. Her responsibilities are beginning to show themselves, she needs to help the Shadowhunters in their war and strike a balance between that and being the girl she was. While she doesn't lose that nerdy, artsy side of her, she is growing older and changing. She's still very much Clary though.
POWER: CANON SKILLS: Clary spent the vast majority of her life thinking she was an ordinary and boring human. It's throughout the books that she discovers that she had been born a Shadowhunter, one of the nephilim ( descendants of angels ). Her mother, a runaway, had spirited her out of Idris at a young age and wiped her memories simply to keep her safe. She'd wanted Clary to grow up "normal" but Clary could see things that other people couldn't, could fight against the incantation placed on her young mind. She could peel back the glamours placed on her world by those who want to stay hidden and see something "other". In this case, it would be snatches of images from the Downworlder world. Faeries in the backyard, the boy in Pandemonium. Clary also has the inate nephilim abilities: superhuman strength, agility, stamina and coordination, though she has to train to get the hang of them as Shadowhunters are supposed to have been taught from early ages. Her fighting skills are not as powerful as Jace or Alec or Isabelle, but throughout the books we see she's able to hold her own against demons, as though tapping into the power under her skin. Anything can be a weapon to the Shadowhunters, so we see a cleverness, a thing that needs quick thinking and the ability to act on the spot.
She is much more 'angel' than the others. Her father, Valentine, fed her pregnant mother the blood of the angel Ithuriel whom he kept captive under the Manor in which they lived. It's been said this was to defeat Jocelyn's depression after he poisoned her first born with the blood of a demon. He had no idea she'd been pregnant a second time. This has led Clary to have her own unique power over magical runes. Runes to the Shadowhunters are markings to assist them in fighting demons. These marks are the angelic symbols that Shadowhunters burn into their skin with steles to grant them their various supernatural abilities. They are part of a complicated runic language given to them by the Angel Raziel to grant them powers beyond those of mundanes. The runes range from anything to the wearer being soundless or being able to heal injury. They each have a corresponding word and meaning subscribed to them and when placed upon the skin, react accordingly. Clary is able to see runes she's never encountered before - in a sort of vision state, they come to her and if she doesn't know exactly what they do, she gets a sense of what they can achieve. Her power is one pretty much unmatched. She's able to create runes that no one of the modern Shadowhunter world have seen before. Such as the Alliance rune. In City of Glass she creates this rune to join Shadowhunters to another downworlder to share each other's powers and help fight against Valentine's army. She was also able to create a rune that made the bearer fearless which she used on Alec Lightwood for the first time. We also see how strong her power is when she brands her best friend Simon with the Mark of Cain, a mark which shocks people as only those of heaven should be able to impart a mark of heaven.
Clary is also able to use a stele - the Shadowhunter weapon of choice. They must be summoned, and can be used to draw the marks the Shadowhunters wear. They are crafted with adamas by the Iron Sisters and vary in design.
CITY POWER: Drawing Creation - Clary is an artist. I'd like for her city power to utilise that. At first it will only be small things she can draw and bring to life, trinkets and the like ( pens, cups, socks etc ). But as time goes on and she gets better at it she can learn how to make more intricate things such as weapons.
I'd also like to limit it to things that are not living.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE: [ At first it takes some getting used to. Clary's had a webcam before, obviously she'd needed one for her nightly meetings with Simon during the latest WoW raid. It's not like the concept is that strange in itself. But it's the fact that it's on her phone that's giving her a little bit of trouble. The first time she'd opened it all she'd been able to see was her face, too up close, worried and freckly. Part of her doesn't even want to inflict that on the general population. But she's had a look through the network by now and it seems to be the done thing. So she goes for it.
The first few seconds are awkward, her frown more pronounced as she checks if it's on, but then her smile clears that all up. ] So, uh, hey? I think I'm using this right. I hope you guys can see me. And also hear me. It would suck if you couldn't. Unless your superpower is lip-reading - which sounds like a bum deal actually. [ Focus, Fray. ] Anyway, I'm Clary. I'm new. I got here like a couple of hours ago and seriously, the welcome committee could be a little better. Which is why I thought this was the best way.
I have a few questions. Mostly about the superhero gig. Can we like change our superhero names? Because I was not expecting that question. I panicked. It's awkward. Also do we need costumes? Do they have to be spandex? Is there a universal law about saving the world in a suit that shows - literally everything - off? [ Nobody wants to see her in a fitted suit, nobody. ]
Also, is there an art supply store around here? Apparently that's part of my gift from the gods or whatever, and I really want to test it out ... although I guess - do they use dollars here? What's the currency in the alternate US? Am I going to get arrested if I pull out my wallet? It would not be a good start to my heroism if I got put in the back of a cop car. Also I think my mom would be able to sense it across the universes, so.
[ A shrug and then a semi-awkward smile. ] Any help would be seriously appreciated. I kind of don't know anyone here.
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE: Once it starts to sink in that there's no way home, then she really starts to panic.
She hadn't thought about it at all during the commotion of arriving, hadn't had the time between taking her file and being ushered to some strange new city with a job and a room in an apartment to her name. She'd been too busy then thinking 'do these people know how old I am', wondering what they got for being over-zealous in their soldiering, knowing that she could barely fend for herself to ask the important questions. Because she'd taken it all in semi-meekly, like she'd been in part of a daze. Like being kidnapped to a different dimension happened to her everyday. And then some people had clued her in. There's no return ticket. It's all one way until maybe a machine or maybe a man says otherwise.
So she's panicking. She can't help it.
Because while she's been assured that time doesn't move here, that she'll go home and she'll have been gone barely a second, it doesn't make any difference. Her world is still pinned on what she can do to help it, on her saving her mom, saving Jace, stopping Valentine. The war is coming and all of her had been hurtling towards it that now she's not she feels strange. Her blood still sings for battle, her heart still beats knowing that she has to win. If she can't then there's nothing. So she doesn't have the time or the patience for all of this. And part of her, a large part if she's honest, wants nothing more than to try portaling out of this place. Of course in all reality it would just open up a huge hole in the building and not through space and time. She probably couldn't do that even if she wished really, really hard. She'd probably just blow up the block and everything in it. But damn is she tempted.
Destruction aside, Clary doesn't really know what she's doing here. Yes, so she's gotten the low-down on the whole hero thing, but that doesn't really explain what she is doing here. Jace would have been a better pick, Jace who can leap whole buildings in a single bound and make quips that would make most comic book writers weep. He'd be good here. He'd fit in. Even Alec with his serious face and tone. But Clary - she can barely get the hang of applying runes to things without drowning ( it's happened twice, she knows there's a record ). She trips over her own feet. She makes the worlds worst decisions and everyone around her gets hurt. What good is she going to do for the people here?
Even her power feels useless. What can she draw? Men with eggplant arms? Cups that have no real impact here? She can see it now, her on top of a building pelting replicas of the Mortal Cup down on some bad guys. It would really make them think twice about being villainous. When that thought comes, she can't help the hysterical burst of laughter that bursts from her as she throws herself back on her bed, rolling over immediately to bury her face in the pillow. It's not hers, not the one she's been sleeping in for years and she feels something of a dull pang at the realisation that her home, the apartment she shared with her mom, it's still not safe. She's had her fair share of stranger beds lately, what's one more?
The worst part is - the worst part is knowing that no one will notice she's gone. Not Amatis, not Luke, not Simon. Jace if he could know would probably be relieved. She does her best not to think about that. And if she wants to find a way out and a way home and help everyone else with her then thinking about Jace should be the last thing she does. Brooding won't help.
... But then again, it is her first day. Nobody's expecting her to don a cape immediately, right?
FINAL NOTES: Inventory
( 1 ) green coat.
( 1 ) pair of jeans.
( 1 ) t-shirt.
( 1 ) pair of boots.
( 1 ) set of underwear.
( 1 ) stele.
( 1 ) witchlight.
( 1 ) seraph blade.