"charlie bradbury"

Name: Enzel
DW username: stormfallen
E-Mail: proximity.nine@gmail.com
IM: Terra in Pyjamas

Other Characters: N/A

Character Name: Charlie Bradbury
Series: Supernatural
Timeline: After 8x11.
Canon Resource Link: Wiki link!
Episode Guides:
7x20
8x11

Character Background: Charlie is just an IT girl.

At least, that's what she'd love everyone to think. When she first shows up, she's hacking into a harddrive that contains information about the Winchester brothers' aliases. Turns out the big bad of the season, Dick Roman, is just using her brain to get at his enemies. Charlie? She just doesn't want to lose her job. What's keeping her alive is that she's got something the Leviathan can't copy: a "spark", her intellect and skill with computers. Of course, when she breaks the encryption, she finds a bunch of stuff about monsters that can't possibly be real...until she witnesses her boss getting eaten by one.

Understandably, she flees for her life. Back in her apartment, packing, the Winchesters find her, and ask for her help. Roman is looking for something, and he has it out for mankind, so it can't be good. Charlie is the only one that can get the info. They give her the option to go into hiding instead, but she decides to buck up and enter the belly of the beast to help them. After a close call with a security guard, she gets the brothers their information, but Roman returns, cornering her. Meanwhile, Sam and Dean go off to intercept an important package, unaware of the danger she's in. They return in the nick of time, and in the scuffle Charlie gets a broken arm, but survives. (mostly thanks to an angry ghost.) She leaves on a bus eventually, telling them never to contact her again.

Fate (or just capricious writers) draws them all together again. Sam and Dean are investigating a strange case and stumble upon a group of Live Action Roleplayers...and Charlie just happens to be playing their Queen. She's not happy to see them, as she'd really hoped after the Leviathan fiasco to settle down and have a normal life again. (normal for her means geeky, full of bobblehead figures, comics, and kissing cute girls.) Unfortunately, the case turns out to be a jealous suitor taking the game too seriously, and using an enslaved fairy to eliminate the competition. (Joke was on him, she's not interested in guys in the first place. Sad.) So with the Winchesters' help, Charlie stabs a book, frees the fairy (after making out with her a little) and decides that, hey, maybe this whole saving people thing isn't so bad after all. She and the brothers part on good terms this time.

Charlie is, to use her own language, a Gryffindor. Not literally, because the magic in the Supernatural world doesn't usually involve wands, but...though technically her best asset is her smarts, when push comes to shove, it's her bravery that shines through. And bravery can't exist without fear to counter it. Charlie is an ordinary (kind of small) person living in a world full of a lot of things that want to kill/maim/eat humans, and she knows it. But she still does her hardest to do what's right, even if it's terrifying. Even if...she has to sing to herself a little to help with the nerves. Sometimes said nerves get the better of her, which is understandable in a life or death situation, but she manages to think on her feet nonetheless.

She has a love of fantasy and sci-fi that follows her wherever she goes--she fires off pop culture references pretty frequently. And as one of the few women on the show that is neither villain nor love interest for the brothers, she actually takes on a little sister role to them. Dean especially tries to look out for her, and banters with her easily, though it was Sam that boosted her courage with a speech about Harry Potter. She's friendly and a bit of a flirt, though it's not as if she sets out to break hearts. She actually expressed a little interest in seeing someone regularly before she had to make herself scarce after her first appearance.

Compassion is up there with brains and bravery, too. Charlie actually spent some of her time at Richard Roman Enterprises hacking and diverting Republican Party funds to an Animal Lover's organization. And her reason for sticking around and putting her life in danger? The Leviathan were going to kill (and eat) the people she knew.

On the other hand, she's not completely honest. When parting with the Winchesters the first time, she tells them it isn't the first time she's disappeared, and implies that "Charlie Bradbury" isn't her real name. When she shows up again, she's going by the name "Carrie Heinlein". Both aliases are references to Steven King and famous sci-fi authors, like Dean and Sam use rock band members for theirs.


(the following paragraph contains spoilers for the episode Pac-Man Fever, 8x20, which aired on 4/24. The reason I'm including it is that it contained important details about Charlie's past.)

It turns out the reason Charlie is so secretive is because, when she was young, she lost her parents in a car accident. Her mother was in a vegetative state, declared brain dead, but the hospital kept her on life support. Charlie sends money periodically to keep her alive, and sometimes sneaks in to visit her, but never officially. For all intents and purposes, the child she was vanished when her parents did.

Charlie feels deep guilt over the accident, since she called her parents to pick her up at a sleepover because she was scared, and they were killed while driving there. She has a love of geeky things because her mother used to read her The Hobbit aloud when she was little. All this puts her fear at losing her job at RRE into perspective, because she wouldn't just be losing her livelihood--she wouldn't be able to support her mother anymore, either.

(end spoilers)



Abilities/Special Powers: Charlie is 100% normal human, as far as we know...she's just really good with computers. When asked if there's anything she can't hack, she just says "nothing yet".

Third-Person Sample: This is not the first time Charlie's woken up in a strange place with no memory of how she got there. And it's the second time it's happened when she knows she definitely hasn't been drinking. Which...isn't a good sign. Because the last time--

Well, actually, the last time it happened she almost got laid. Scratch that. But it doesn't change the fact that mysterious supernatural kidnappings are hella creepy. She's still wearing all her clothes, at least--her leather tunic and leggings from the last battle of Moondor, of course. Meaning no phone, no wallet. Nada.

"It could be worse, Charlie," she mutters to herself, trying to get her bearings. "Could have woken up to something munching on you. Delicious nerd snacks." That doesn't make her feel any better. Grass, and bushes. No, hedges--they're trimmed, and high enough that she can't see over them. She climbs to her feet cautiously; at least it's daylight.

It occurs to her, then, that maybe this is the fairy world, and a certain someone took her up on her "call me maybe" request. That was fast.

"Gilda...?" she calls out, her voice wavering. She cringes a little. Way to sound totally cool. But there's no response, of course, and she's certainly not going to sit around waiting. That's when she sees it, something glinting in the grass. It looks a lot like a Blackberry, but bigger. More like a Kindle, actually. Though it feels silly, the sight of technology actually boosts her spirits a little, and she bends down to pick it up. Gingerly, of course. It could be booby-trapped.

She brushes grass off the screen, looking it over for any identifying markings. Not even a brand name. Weird.

"I can do weird," Charlie says aloud, not really convincing anyone. Including herself. She turns it on.

It looks like...well, some kind of blogging platform. And all the messages are kind of freaky. Cries for help, basically...it looks like there are more people in the same predicament. She almost forgets she's standing in the middle of who knows where scrolling through them all. Then something rustles nearby, and she nearly jumps out of her boots.

It's just the wind. Hopefully? Charlie swallows a little, taking a few tentative steps down the grassy corridor. The hedges bend after a few yards, and she quickly realizes what's going on. It's a maze.

"Oh....bother," she mumbles under her breath. Tentatively, she reaches out and brushes her fingers against the hedges, praying fervently they won't open up and swallow her whole. They don't, so she keeps her arm out, skimming her fingers over the leaves as she walks, making sure she keeps to one wall.

It takes a while, but thankfully it does seem to be a true labyrinth, because Charlie finally emerges into the afternoon sunlight, shading her eyes. There are gardens and...a large building, a mansion of some sort. Classic. At least nothing's tried to eat her yet. And yes--there are people walking around outside. She heaves a sigh of relief.

But are they the ones who sent the messages? Or something else? She decides to play it safe. She usually does. It's not fear, it's...healthy self-preservation. Yeah.


First-Person Sample:

[the message is all text. She's trying to lay a little low for the time being.]

Is it fairies? If it were fairies that would actually make me feel better. It would mean this is the weirdest booty call I've ever gotten, but it would also raise my chances of survival. I'd like to not die. That would be great.

[awesome start, Charlie. Well, soldiering on. To be fair, she did edit a few things before posting.]

I mean, I think I got the idea just from reading. Everyone's kidnapped, boozing it up seems to help with the culture shock. Is it awful to say I'm glad I'm not alone? Not that I want anyone else to get kidnapped. You know. Wow this sounds bad. I'm gonna start over

I'm not exactly an expert on this creepy magic stuff, but I know a guy or two. Figures they're probably not here tho. [and as much as she hates to admit it, she could really use some Winchesters right now.] I know my way around computers but this network doesn't even use ip addresses or anything, it's freaky. Why would another dimension have a message board, anyway? Did they know the internet generation would get restless and do it to pacify us?