Edy
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Edith "Edy" |
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|---|---|
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Dorley girl |
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| Gender | Female |
| Year of intake | 2005 |
| Sponsor | Maria |
| Gender at intake | Cis male |
| Date of birth | 1986-08-04 |
| Name at intake | [show]Seth McMillan |
| First appearance | Chapter 6 |
| Chapters with POV scenes | |
| edit this box | |
Edy is a graduate of the 2005 intake. She is in a relationship with Maria, and is currently sponsoring Adam.
She is tall [SD 6] with curly hair and bangs. She has a tall forehead, which she is self-conscious about, but because she is intimidated by the prospect of FFS, she happily makes do. [SD 21]
Maria describes her as "incredibly gay". [SD 18]
She seems to be widely read with a special interest in subjects relating to religion; she keeps a large collection of books in her room.
Though having been deprogrammed from the religious indoctrination imposed on her by the New Church, she retains a personal spiritual practice of reflection and prayer and values the lessons taught to her by her mother as a child. She wears a crucifix necklace. [SD 21]
Relationship with Maria
Following her difficult time in the nascent post-takeover programme, Edy's relationship with her former sponsor was distant; during Edy's first sponsorship, she mostly only interacted with Maria via text messages. Edy eventually "got restless" and left the Hall in 2013, only to return some time later, having grown as a person through lived experience; meanwhile, the mood at the Hall had become "more relaxed" and "nicer". No longer resentful of Maria, Edy "finally started talking to her properly"; Maria apologized but Edy instead thanked her. [SD 19] In hindsight, Edy observes that she "had to become first someone worthy of love and then someone ready for it, and Maria had to let her guard down". [SD 21]
Following a "long-standing" friendship, Edy and Maria's relationship grew more serious after Beatrice's birthday party on October 25th 2019, when Edy put a "happily drunk" Maria to bed and "never left". As the two began spending more time together, they quickly stopped trying to keep their relationship a secret. [SD 17]
As Maria's partner, Maria tells Beatrice that Edy is "disgustingly sweet". [SD 15] She is often seen countering Maria's sardonic sense of humor with her own; she dislikes Maria's penchant for making blithe jokes about her "dark past" at the Hall. [SD 18] She takes special care in managing Maria's PTSD symptoms. [SD 21]
By the beginning of December 2019, Edy is "barely" using her own room any more, preferring to stay at Maria's. [SD 21]
Pre-transition
As a member of the New Church, Edy was indoctrinated into a secretive and isolated, patriarchal sect of Christianity that fostered a "violent and oppressive environment" [SD 32] of "systematised cruelty". [SD 38] Teachings of the New Church include extreme beliefs such as "demonic influence in secular culture is responsible for the glorification of homosexuality", [SD 5] "the ‘sins of the flesh’ originate in demonic temptation", [SD 9] and that transgender people are "unclean" "devils of the secular world" and that anything they touch is likewise unclean. [SD 30]
Edy recalls that prior to being brought to the Hall she was a "confused, angry, lonely boy, prone to bigotry, zealotry, and all the other things that were stained onto her flesh as a child"; a "broken, spitting, desperate child who once sneered with her mouth and hated with her voice and hurt with her hands". [SD 21] Edy believes that she "did worse than Adam, for far less approval" while in the New Church. [SD 31]
In the programme
Edy was the first candidate nominated for the 2005 intake. She was in the basement for eighteen months and reflects on the experience as "a bit rough" and that she had "rather a hard time" under Maria and Bea's authority. [SD 19]
Sponsoring
Edy is one of the most senior sponsors at the Hall; Christine considers her a "stickler for the rules". Steph considers her "the most calm and kind sponsor", next to Pippa. [SD 17]
She often leads sponsor meetings alongside Maria and other senior members of staff, [SD 20] delegates tasks, [SD 23] and stays abreast of many of the goings-on around the Hall; Christine sardonically alludes to her being Maria's "eyes and ears". [SD 21]
Edy helped set up many disparate parts of the modern programme including curating the media folders on the Hall network [SD 18] and the "airlock" protocol for lockdowns.
Maria
Following Beatrice's birthday party on October 25th, Edy and Maria's relationship becomes more serious and the two begin spending more time together. [SD 17]
Edy is present in the basement common room when Leigh attacks Maria on November 27th. Edy takes charge, administering first aid and directing the other sponsors, Dorley girls, and PMC soldiers in the immediate aftermath. She sends Christine ahead to the hospital to liaise with Rabia while awaiting more senior staff to relieve her at the Hall. Edy returns to the basement to brief Steph, Aaron, Martin, and Adam. [SD 17] The next day, while recovering in the hospital, Maria reveals to Beatrice that she has given Edy the week off to accompany her at the hospital and back to the Hall. Indira is assigned to watch Adam and Aaron while Edy and Maria are out; Edy delegates Steph to be available the rest of the time. In the hospital Edy and Maria attempt to make out in Maria's hospital bed but eventually move on to look at get-well-soon cards from the Hall and listen to music together; Edy reassures Maria that the boys in the basement will be well taken care of and that the sponsors will be more careful going forward. [SD 18]
Edy serves as Maria's primary caretaker while she recuperates and fruitlessly attempts to curb her time spent working from bed. The two return to the Hall in time for disclosure to be administered in the basement on November 30th; Edy is present in the basement for the proceedings and comforts Adam before he asks to return to his room. When Aaron becomes unresponsive following disclosure, Steph goes to speak with him at Indira's request and confesses her feelings to him; Aaron responds poorly. Afterward, in the kitchen, Edy consoles Steph and shares her history with Maria before taking her upstairs to see Maria, who speaks with Steph about leaving the basement and selecting a name; Edy comforts Maria as she shares details of her time in the basement under Grandmother's supervision. As Steph returns downstairs, Edy messages her to let her know a room has been made available for her on the first floor and that she has been granted access to most of the biometric locks in the Hall. [SD 19]
Adam
Bringing Adam to the Hall was Edy's idea. [SD 18] Edy believes that Adam never truly wanted to hurt anyone and only "did what he was told", [SD 32] and though her only goal was to get him out of the Church, [SD 44] only Dorley Hall had the resources to properly rehabilitate him. [SD 32]
Edy has an "endless" compassion for Adam [SD 30] and takes a much more gentle approach to sponsoring him than the other sponsors do with their charges. In November, Adam reveals that Edy combs his hair for him; [SD 13] Edy is frequently seen smoothing his hair and brushing it out of his face for him. By the end of November, Adam is aware of Edy's attraction to Maria. [SD 17]
Edy makes slow, gradual progress in building a rapport with Adam. Over their first two weeks together, Adam teaches Edy a prayer from the New Church (unbeknownst to him, she is already familiar): "Your grace is your most precious gift. Please, Lord, make me worthy of it." The two make a practice of praying together in the mornings. [SD 21]
Adam isolates himself following disclosure and his emotional state becomes even more fragile; [SD 21] Edy stays by his side constantly while on duty in the basement. At some point after disclosure, Edy reveals to Adam that his intake is not the first to be re-gendered, believing that it will be useful for him to feel that he knows something the others do not, in a way that mirrors his religious teaching at home. [SD 30]
When Leigh is reintroduced to the basement on December 16th, she makes an apology to Maria and Adam; Adam, screaming, rebuffs her. Edy calms him with a new prayer: "Grace is a precious gift. And it’s ours, not God’s, to give.” [SD 27]
By December 18th, Edy notes that Adam is beginning to feel better. [SD 29] On Christmas Eve, Edy gently confronts his conditioned transphobia with a meal prepared by the second years -- by the teachings of the New Church, trans people are "devils" and they and the food they prepared are "unclean" -- Adam impresses Edy by eating the food. [SD 30] Edy attends the Christmas Eve party with Maria and returns afterward to visit Adam in his room; Edy shows him photos from the party and reassures him that he will have the understanding of the women upstairs when he finally meets them, despite what he may have done in his past. [SD 31]
As a former member of the New Church, Edy is intimately familiar with the church's teachings. She does not reveal her full background to Adam until
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Trivia
- Edy is into music from the 90s and early 2000s; she has a particular fondness for Placebo and admits to having had a crush on Brian Molko in her early teens, despite not being into men. [SD 18]
- She seems to have a large shoe collection. [SD 21]
- Despite being taller, she and Maria wear "basically the same size" and have been sharing clothes for a long time. [SD 21]
- Edy notes that the residents of the Hall un-affiliated with the programme believe her to be attending Saints as a grad student. This appears to be merely a cover story. [SD 21]
- Edy and Maria euphemistically discuss having sex as "board games" when around Beatrice. [SD 21]
Notes on biographical information
- Year of graduation - Edy’s year of graduation is unknown; the 2005 intake is reported to have spent eighteen months in the basement and the exact timeframe between intake and graduation is not known. Following the modern template, she would have graduated no earlier than 2008. [SD 19]
| Dorley girls (and a few non-girls) | |
|---|---|
| 2005 intake | Edy (Maria), unnamed (Aunt Ashley), unnamed (Barbara), unnamed (Sarah), unnamed (Trish) |
| 2019 intake | Adam (Edy), Bethany (Maria), Diana (Monica), Leigh (Tabitha), Martin (Pamela), Ollie (Harmony), Raph (Jane), Stephanie (Pippa) |