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Jul. 31st, 2011 09:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
underherspell[PLAYER INFO]
NAME: Rose
AGE: 22
JOURNAL: devotedsister
IM: aroseblazing
E-MAIL: diointeriore@gmail.com
RETURNING: 2; Shahrazad Al-Rahman, Elektra Natchios
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Tara Maclay
FANDOM: Buffy: the Vampire Slayer
CHRONOLOGY: the end of Season 6, Episode 8: “Tabula Rasa”
CLASS: Hero
SUPERHERO NAME: Glinda
ALTER EGO: Tara Maclay, college student
BACKGROUND:
world: Sunnydale is a lot like the normal world if it contained magic, demons, vampires, alternate universes, and a superhero called the Slayer. This is a place where the apocalypse happens so often it seems more inevitable than surprising. In the midst of all this lies Tara. She is the love interest of one of the core members of the Scoobie Gang who help the Slayer save the world from demons, vampires, evil gods, etc. While she is a newer addition she is every bit as valuable as the rest of them. Tara plays a strong role in supporting all the Scoobies both emotionally and against enemies. She is their light.
relationships
Tara and Willow: Willow is the one who brought her out of the shadows and into the light; figuratively speaking of course. Before she met Willow, Tara was incredibly shy with an obvious stammer when she did speak. Through her friendship (and later romantic relationship) with Willow she comes out of her shell. She blossoms into a beautiful, confident, and strong young woman.
Willow is shown to be her true love and partner in every way. During the summer while Buffy was dead, they both took over the role of parents to Dawn and maintained a stable household for her. Even when they argue it's clear both of them are coming from a place of love. Tara, despite her feelings, is shown willing to leave her if it meant Willow would recover from her addiction. Later she is willing to skip over the process of slowly rebuilding their relationship just to get to the part where they are together again.
In short, the attraction between them is incredibly powerful and brings out the best in both of them. Despite their struggles, they seem to have a way of finding a way back to each other.
Tara and her family (father and brother): While Tara shares a poor relationship with them it no doubt shapes her into the shy, self conscious young woman that Willow initially met. It is overcoming their lies and the hurt they cause her that starts to put on the path to becoming a strong(er) woman.
Tara and Dawn: Dawn starts off as someone who is not quite a Scoobie like her. They share a friendship based on that starting bond of feeling a little left out. After Buffy dies though, Tara basically becomes a mother to her. She makes her pancakes in the morning and does her best to be there for her. It's clear based on Dawn's reactions to Willow and Tara fighting and break up and Tara's reassurances that she would always be there for her that summer meant a great deal to both of them.
Tara and Buffy: The two girls are friends. While it does not happen often, Tara is someone Buffy can turn to for non judgmental help in her personal life as well doubling as powerful ally against the Big Bads.
history:
Tara's early years are not very fleshed out. What we do know is her home life was filled with abuse from her father and brother. Her father cruelly tricked her into believing from an early age that she was part demon from her mother's side which was the source of her magic. This understandably had a huge effect on her life. Tara grew up to believe that both her and her power was evil. Her mother, the witch whose demon half was the source of her power, died when Tara was seventeen. The death was a long time coming and it is mildly implied that her magic use may be a part of it. Afterward, Tara went through a brief period of rebellion in response to the grief of losing her. Shortly after she was allowed to go to college in Sunnydale in hopes of getting magic out of her system.
The exact opposite happens as she finds a companion in Willow who is also a practicing witch. She trains her after their meeting in the episode Hush but, makes it clear that Willow is the more powerful of the two. Their relationship is mostly private at first as Willow wants to keep Tara to herself. Eventually she is shown to the entire group. Tara proves herself to be a useful ally right off the bat by noticing “Buffy” was actually Faith, something which her own friends had not caught onto.
Later on Willow's boyfriend Oz appears after going away to get control of his wolf side. Tara is distraught but, encourages Willow to follow her heart. She insists that they could still be friends even if she is with him. This is the first real confirmation that the two are more than each others magic partners. Tara, convinced Willow will not pick her, runs into Oz later and wishes them happiness. Oz gets suspicious and ends up turning into the wolf when he realizes that Tara and Willow may be more than just friends. The wolf attacks Tara but, she is rescued by the Initiative who experiment on Oz. He is later rescued by the Scoobies. Willow and Oz talk after that and she makes her intentions clear. She goes to Tara afterward and makes it crystal clear that she chooses to be with her while apologizing for the pain she inflicted.
Buffy and company later get used to spending more time with Tara as she always near Willow's side. They have reservations about her since they actually know very little about her. This changes in the episode Family. There it is revealed that Tara came from a family that deceived her into believing she was part demon on her mother's side and that was the source of her magic. Tara spends the episode trying to hide her demon heritage only to get the Scoobies into mortal danger. When all is revealed Tara prepares to leave with her family ashamed of how far she went to hide the secret. The others both forgive Tara and stand up to her. They make it perfectly clear that they are her family now and no one would take Tara away from them against her will. Tara's family leaves without incident thanks to their united front.
After that it is Tara being part of the group adventures against Glory and her minions up until the point where Willow and her get into an argument. Tara reveals her insecurities about Willow possibly going back to men once her training is finished. She goes alone to a fair and ends up being attacked by the goddess who believes she may be the key. Once Glory discovers otherwise she sucks out Tara's mind leaving her a childish, mentally disturbed woman. Willow takes it upon herself to care for her until the final battle with Glory. Willow restores her mind and from then on Tara attempts to help in the battle with Willow at her side following their tearful reunion. Unfortunately it comes down to Buffy at the end. The Slayer gives her life to save the world leaving the others to mourn her loss.
Tara and Willow move in after that and act as mothers to Dawn following Buffy's death. They hide the fact that she is dead from most of the world in order to keep the younger Summers girl with them. They even go as far as maintaining “Buffy bot” (who Spike had created prior to Buffy's death when she refused his advances) to pretend to be the real Buffy. Over the next three months, the Scoobies make plans to revive Buffy without the knowledge of Spike and Dawn. When the time finally comes the ritual to resurrect her gets interrupted (though it is still successful) and the group must split up in order to get away safely.
They later run into Buffy and after some initial confusion manage to get both her and Dawn safely back home. From there it is almost business as usual. Buffy's behavior is off much to worry of everyone around her. Willow is abusing magic as well; Tara is the only person willing to be vocal about her concerns regarding that. When Xander summons a song and dance demon, it's finally revealed to the entire group Buffy was in Heaven following her death and that Willow had been toying with Tara's memories to keep their relationship on solid ground. The group responsible for the resurrection discusses how to handle Buffy following the revelation. When Willow suggests they take her memories of Heaven away much to Tara's horror. The couple argue and Willow swears off magic for a week to appease Tara who is still on the fence on what to do regarding their relationship.
Shortly after that promise, Willow decides to take away Tara and Buffy's unpleasant memories behind everyone's back. In her rush to get the job done she makes a mistake which results in everyone losing their memories. Many hijinks ensue from there. At the end the spell is broken and Tara realizes fully what Willow has done. She leaves her and the Summer's home in hopes that it will compel Willow to get help because she can no longer trust her.
Tara will enter the city just as she is about to try hugging Dawn.
PERSONALITY:
Tara starts off as a very shy, reserved young woman. She doesn't speak up for herself (and when she does it's with some stammering and awkward pauses) and is very timid in her interactions. We see this best when she first hears Willow speak. Rather reveal that she had similar feelings on magic to the college group she hides behind her hair and later goes to seek the other witch out on her own. This has a lot to do with her upbringing and her lack of friends growing up. Through her relationship with Willow (as her teacher, friend, and later lover) she gradually comes out of her shell.
It is clear to see she is virtuous and kind once she does start to open up. Tara acts a voice of reason to those around her when it is necessary. When Joyce died, she made it clear to both a wavering Willow and a distraught Dawn that resurrecting her would be wrong. While she scolded them for going there, Tara also made it very clear she understood their feelings. She also was one of the few people who were able to offer help to Buffy following her mother's death while at the same time maintaining that she could never fully understand the Slayer's feelings about this since every loss is different. When addiction takes over Willow's life it prompts Tara to leave her. Although Tara loves her, she does everything within her power to make Willow see she has a problem that must be fixed. She refused to watch her loved one lose herself into addiction quietly which speaks to her level of strength and sense of right and wrong.
As expected of someone who is shy, Tara does have a few insecurities. The witch fears she may be useless to the Scoobies and studies hard despite the fact she was a help from start. (She uses magic to help Willow barricade the door when they encounter each other in a crisis in Hush, she notices that Faith has taken over Buffy's body when introduced to the group, etc.) She also fears once Willow has fully surpassed her that she will lose what she perceives won Willow's affections in the first place; magic. These are all baseless concerns but, telling about Tara's self value.
Aside from magic, Tara is a fairly normal young woman. She gets depressed over bad spelling on the internet, tries out spicy talk on her friends, and enjoys just hanging out with the group once they come to accept her. Tara is also something of a feminine, motherly figure. She helps care for Dawn with Willow and in general tries to be an understanding party to confide in. We see that in almost all her interactions with Willow and to a lesser extent with Buffy and Dawn. That does not mean she won't quietly excuse herself when Anya and Willow go at it though. She does have a sense of self preservation.
To wrap it up Tara is shy, kind young woman who tries to look out for the people around her. She's firmly set on the good path and always will be despite the crazy influences around her.
POWER:
Tara is a powerful witch in the Buffy-verse meaning she has both access and the ability to use magic. She is however very prudent with this ability; it is almost always used for the protection of others and the exceptions were to train Willow. The way it works is through potions (mixing of ingredients), talismans, rituals (a mix of invoking powers, using talisman, or potions), and spells which involving invoking a greater power to help them bend reality. Powerful witches like Tara can do some of this through sheer will such as telekinesis, levitating objects, and pyrokinesis. It comes at the cost of exhausting their energy and in the case of darker, stronger spells a consequence is applied in the form of a demon that tries to kill the caster and anything else in it's path. No, really.
As far as Tara is concerned, she will likely be confined to simple spells and "seeing" (e.g. people's auras) and sensing things via magic unless she can find magic books, talisman, and ingredients necessary to do any other magic in the City.
[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (FIRST PERSON) SAMPLE:
[voice]
I think there's been some of kind of mistake. Buffy is the super hero of the group. [She rushes out quickly.] N-Not that I want her to be here in my place! Oh God no. She has plenty of superheroing to do at home. You really shouldn't bring her here. Ever. You don't want a mad real life superhero on your hands.
[She takes a breath and continues. Tara sounds genuinely concerned.]
It's just I don't belong here... but I think maybe none of us do. Dragging so many of us out of our home dimensions must really upset the balance here. I wonder what the world must be like outside this building. Guess I better find out, huh? If it's really going to be my job to help out here. The woman machine didn't make it sound optional.
Oh... I should probably introduce myself. Sorry, I just keep talking about all this stuff. Um... do we go by our real names or superhero names here? Dumb question I know. It's probably superhero names. So according to the dog tags I'm Glinda. Nice to meet you fellow heroes?
LOGS POST (THIRD PERSON) SAMPLE:
When Tara walked out the door of the Summers' home she knew her life was in for a big change. Willow was not going to be a part of it as difficult as that was to accept. The trust between them had been broken. While she held out hope that one day it would be repaired now was not going to be that time. No, now was a time for change even if it killed her to do so.
Tara just had not counted on that change being called to an alternate dimension to be a super hero with Dawn, Buffy, and Spike. Even days later she still wasn't sure if staying here was the right thing to do. A part of her was greatly tempted to scour the city for books and materials to find a way home. Sure she did not have anywhere near the level of power Willow possessed but, she could try.
She was practical enough to know that for now it was a pointless endeavor to risk the others safety on. Time had stopped back home. Tara knew this for a fact because she never noticed Buffy and Dawn missing. They clearly had no idea what was going on with her and Willow. They were still living in the past. Tara almost envied them. Almost. A part of thinks it is easier to try getting over the memory tampering she had been subjected to with Willow not here. Another part was selfishly grateful she could spend time with Dawnie without having a broken relationship between them.
Tara was far from ignorant. Dawn saw them as her parents now and like her real ones they had broken up. The younger Summers girl was not going to get over that any time soon... or at least the Dawn at home. Dawn now did not seem to suspect anything was amiss. Tara was in no rush to correct her. She never liked secrets but, sometimes they were necessary.
Right now focusing on the helping the Summers' women in the City seemed more important than sharing what had happened at home.
NAME: Rose
AGE: 22
JOURNAL: devotedsister
IM: aroseblazing
E-MAIL: diointeriore@gmail.com
RETURNING: 2; Shahrazad Al-Rahman, Elektra Natchios
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Tara Maclay
FANDOM: Buffy: the Vampire Slayer
CHRONOLOGY: the end of Season 6, Episode 8: “Tabula Rasa”
CLASS: Hero
SUPERHERO NAME: Glinda
ALTER EGO: Tara Maclay, college student
BACKGROUND:
world: Sunnydale is a lot like the normal world if it contained magic, demons, vampires, alternate universes, and a superhero called the Slayer. This is a place where the apocalypse happens so often it seems more inevitable than surprising. In the midst of all this lies Tara. She is the love interest of one of the core members of the Scoobie Gang who help the Slayer save the world from demons, vampires, evil gods, etc. While she is a newer addition she is every bit as valuable as the rest of them. Tara plays a strong role in supporting all the Scoobies both emotionally and against enemies. She is their light.
relationships
Tara and Willow: Willow is the one who brought her out of the shadows and into the light; figuratively speaking of course. Before she met Willow, Tara was incredibly shy with an obvious stammer when she did speak. Through her friendship (and later romantic relationship) with Willow she comes out of her shell. She blossoms into a beautiful, confident, and strong young woman.
Willow is shown to be her true love and partner in every way. During the summer while Buffy was dead, they both took over the role of parents to Dawn and maintained a stable household for her. Even when they argue it's clear both of them are coming from a place of love. Tara, despite her feelings, is shown willing to leave her if it meant Willow would recover from her addiction. Later she is willing to skip over the process of slowly rebuilding their relationship just to get to the part where they are together again.
In short, the attraction between them is incredibly powerful and brings out the best in both of them. Despite their struggles, they seem to have a way of finding a way back to each other.
Tara and her family (father and brother): While Tara shares a poor relationship with them it no doubt shapes her into the shy, self conscious young woman that Willow initially met. It is overcoming their lies and the hurt they cause her that starts to put on the path to becoming a strong(er) woman.
Tara and Dawn: Dawn starts off as someone who is not quite a Scoobie like her. They share a friendship based on that starting bond of feeling a little left out. After Buffy dies though, Tara basically becomes a mother to her. She makes her pancakes in the morning and does her best to be there for her. It's clear based on Dawn's reactions to Willow and Tara fighting and break up and Tara's reassurances that she would always be there for her that summer meant a great deal to both of them.
Tara and Buffy: The two girls are friends. While it does not happen often, Tara is someone Buffy can turn to for non judgmental help in her personal life as well doubling as powerful ally against the Big Bads.
history:
Tara's early years are not very fleshed out. What we do know is her home life was filled with abuse from her father and brother. Her father cruelly tricked her into believing from an early age that she was part demon from her mother's side which was the source of her magic. This understandably had a huge effect on her life. Tara grew up to believe that both her and her power was evil. Her mother, the witch whose demon half was the source of her power, died when Tara was seventeen. The death was a long time coming and it is mildly implied that her magic use may be a part of it. Afterward, Tara went through a brief period of rebellion in response to the grief of losing her. Shortly after she was allowed to go to college in Sunnydale in hopes of getting magic out of her system.
The exact opposite happens as she finds a companion in Willow who is also a practicing witch. She trains her after their meeting in the episode Hush but, makes it clear that Willow is the more powerful of the two. Their relationship is mostly private at first as Willow wants to keep Tara to herself. Eventually she is shown to the entire group. Tara proves herself to be a useful ally right off the bat by noticing “Buffy” was actually Faith, something which her own friends had not caught onto.
Later on Willow's boyfriend Oz appears after going away to get control of his wolf side. Tara is distraught but, encourages Willow to follow her heart. She insists that they could still be friends even if she is with him. This is the first real confirmation that the two are more than each others magic partners. Tara, convinced Willow will not pick her, runs into Oz later and wishes them happiness. Oz gets suspicious and ends up turning into the wolf when he realizes that Tara and Willow may be more than just friends. The wolf attacks Tara but, she is rescued by the Initiative who experiment on Oz. He is later rescued by the Scoobies. Willow and Oz talk after that and she makes her intentions clear. She goes to Tara afterward and makes it crystal clear that she chooses to be with her while apologizing for the pain she inflicted.
Buffy and company later get used to spending more time with Tara as she always near Willow's side. They have reservations about her since they actually know very little about her. This changes in the episode Family. There it is revealed that Tara came from a family that deceived her into believing she was part demon on her mother's side and that was the source of her magic. Tara spends the episode trying to hide her demon heritage only to get the Scoobies into mortal danger. When all is revealed Tara prepares to leave with her family ashamed of how far she went to hide the secret. The others both forgive Tara and stand up to her. They make it perfectly clear that they are her family now and no one would take Tara away from them against her will. Tara's family leaves without incident thanks to their united front.
After that it is Tara being part of the group adventures against Glory and her minions up until the point where Willow and her get into an argument. Tara reveals her insecurities about Willow possibly going back to men once her training is finished. She goes alone to a fair and ends up being attacked by the goddess who believes she may be the key. Once Glory discovers otherwise she sucks out Tara's mind leaving her a childish, mentally disturbed woman. Willow takes it upon herself to care for her until the final battle with Glory. Willow restores her mind and from then on Tara attempts to help in the battle with Willow at her side following their tearful reunion. Unfortunately it comes down to Buffy at the end. The Slayer gives her life to save the world leaving the others to mourn her loss.
Tara and Willow move in after that and act as mothers to Dawn following Buffy's death. They hide the fact that she is dead from most of the world in order to keep the younger Summers girl with them. They even go as far as maintaining “Buffy bot” (who Spike had created prior to Buffy's death when she refused his advances) to pretend to be the real Buffy. Over the next three months, the Scoobies make plans to revive Buffy without the knowledge of Spike and Dawn. When the time finally comes the ritual to resurrect her gets interrupted (though it is still successful) and the group must split up in order to get away safely.
They later run into Buffy and after some initial confusion manage to get both her and Dawn safely back home. From there it is almost business as usual. Buffy's behavior is off much to worry of everyone around her. Willow is abusing magic as well; Tara is the only person willing to be vocal about her concerns regarding that. When Xander summons a song and dance demon, it's finally revealed to the entire group Buffy was in Heaven following her death and that Willow had been toying with Tara's memories to keep their relationship on solid ground. The group responsible for the resurrection discusses how to handle Buffy following the revelation. When Willow suggests they take her memories of Heaven away much to Tara's horror. The couple argue and Willow swears off magic for a week to appease Tara who is still on the fence on what to do regarding their relationship.
Shortly after that promise, Willow decides to take away Tara and Buffy's unpleasant memories behind everyone's back. In her rush to get the job done she makes a mistake which results in everyone losing their memories. Many hijinks ensue from there. At the end the spell is broken and Tara realizes fully what Willow has done. She leaves her and the Summer's home in hopes that it will compel Willow to get help because she can no longer trust her.
Tara will enter the city just as she is about to try hugging Dawn.
PERSONALITY:
Tara starts off as a very shy, reserved young woman. She doesn't speak up for herself (and when she does it's with some stammering and awkward pauses) and is very timid in her interactions. We see this best when she first hears Willow speak. Rather reveal that she had similar feelings on magic to the college group she hides behind her hair and later goes to seek the other witch out on her own. This has a lot to do with her upbringing and her lack of friends growing up. Through her relationship with Willow (as her teacher, friend, and later lover) she gradually comes out of her shell.
It is clear to see she is virtuous and kind once she does start to open up. Tara acts a voice of reason to those around her when it is necessary. When Joyce died, she made it clear to both a wavering Willow and a distraught Dawn that resurrecting her would be wrong. While she scolded them for going there, Tara also made it very clear she understood their feelings. She also was one of the few people who were able to offer help to Buffy following her mother's death while at the same time maintaining that she could never fully understand the Slayer's feelings about this since every loss is different. When addiction takes over Willow's life it prompts Tara to leave her. Although Tara loves her, she does everything within her power to make Willow see she has a problem that must be fixed. She refused to watch her loved one lose herself into addiction quietly which speaks to her level of strength and sense of right and wrong.
As expected of someone who is shy, Tara does have a few insecurities. The witch fears she may be useless to the Scoobies and studies hard despite the fact she was a help from start. (She uses magic to help Willow barricade the door when they encounter each other in a crisis in Hush, she notices that Faith has taken over Buffy's body when introduced to the group, etc.) She also fears once Willow has fully surpassed her that she will lose what she perceives won Willow's affections in the first place; magic. These are all baseless concerns but, telling about Tara's self value.
Aside from magic, Tara is a fairly normal young woman. She gets depressed over bad spelling on the internet, tries out spicy talk on her friends, and enjoys just hanging out with the group once they come to accept her. Tara is also something of a feminine, motherly figure. She helps care for Dawn with Willow and in general tries to be an understanding party to confide in. We see that in almost all her interactions with Willow and to a lesser extent with Buffy and Dawn. That does not mean she won't quietly excuse herself when Anya and Willow go at it though. She does have a sense of self preservation.
To wrap it up Tara is shy, kind young woman who tries to look out for the people around her. She's firmly set on the good path and always will be despite the crazy influences around her.
POWER:
Tara is a powerful witch in the Buffy-verse meaning she has both access and the ability to use magic. She is however very prudent with this ability; it is almost always used for the protection of others and the exceptions were to train Willow. The way it works is through potions (mixing of ingredients), talismans, rituals (a mix of invoking powers, using talisman, or potions), and spells which involving invoking a greater power to help them bend reality. Powerful witches like Tara can do some of this through sheer will such as telekinesis, levitating objects, and pyrokinesis. It comes at the cost of exhausting their energy and in the case of darker, stronger spells a consequence is applied in the form of a demon that tries to kill the caster and anything else in it's path. No, really.
As far as Tara is concerned, she will likely be confined to simple spells and "seeing" (e.g. people's auras) and sensing things via magic unless she can find magic books, talisman, and ingredients necessary to do any other magic in the City.
[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (FIRST PERSON) SAMPLE:
[voice]
I think there's been some of kind of mistake. Buffy is the super hero of the group. [She rushes out quickly.] N-Not that I want her to be here in my place! Oh God no. She has plenty of superheroing to do at home. You really shouldn't bring her here. Ever. You don't want a mad real life superhero on your hands.
[She takes a breath and continues. Tara sounds genuinely concerned.]
It's just I don't belong here... but I think maybe none of us do. Dragging so many of us out of our home dimensions must really upset the balance here. I wonder what the world must be like outside this building. Guess I better find out, huh? If it's really going to be my job to help out here. The woman machine didn't make it sound optional.
Oh... I should probably introduce myself. Sorry, I just keep talking about all this stuff. Um... do we go by our real names or superhero names here? Dumb question I know. It's probably superhero names. So according to the dog tags I'm Glinda. Nice to meet you fellow heroes?
LOGS POST (THIRD PERSON) SAMPLE:
When Tara walked out the door of the Summers' home she knew her life was in for a big change. Willow was not going to be a part of it as difficult as that was to accept. The trust between them had been broken. While she held out hope that one day it would be repaired now was not going to be that time. No, now was a time for change even if it killed her to do so.
Tara just had not counted on that change being called to an alternate dimension to be a super hero with Dawn, Buffy, and Spike. Even days later she still wasn't sure if staying here was the right thing to do. A part of her was greatly tempted to scour the city for books and materials to find a way home. Sure she did not have anywhere near the level of power Willow possessed but, she could try.
She was practical enough to know that for now it was a pointless endeavor to risk the others safety on. Time had stopped back home. Tara knew this for a fact because she never noticed Buffy and Dawn missing. They clearly had no idea what was going on with her and Willow. They were still living in the past. Tara almost envied them. Almost. A part of thinks it is easier to try getting over the memory tampering she had been subjected to with Willow not here. Another part was selfishly grateful she could spend time with Dawnie without having a broken relationship between them.
Tara was far from ignorant. Dawn saw them as her parents now and like her real ones they had broken up. The younger Summers girl was not going to get over that any time soon... or at least the Dawn at home. Dawn now did not seem to suspect anything was amiss. Tara was in no rush to correct her. She never liked secrets but, sometimes they were necessary.
Right now focusing on the helping the Summers' women in the City seemed more important than sharing what had happened at home.
