Maureen Orcades

Lady Maureen Orcades, was the current Morgause and mother to Naomi, (among others.) She died as the story dictated she would, by beheading after being caught having an affair by her son.

Appearance
Maureen looked like her daughter, though her hair was brown, with no hints of red. She usually wore it loose, falling in soft waves just a little ways past her shoulders. She did have her daughter's hazel eyes, small bone structure, and light tan skin, but lacked any freckles, (except one by her right eye.)

Maureen usually wore the fanciest clothes she could find as an adult, her favorite being a red knee length dress with a layered skirt, black jewels on the bodice, black tights and black flats.

As a teenager, however, Maureen's style included ratty jeans and a too-big for her sweatshirt with the hood often pulled over her head, and falling apart sneakers.

Personality
Maureen was often known as a player, a flirt, fitting her role as Morgause, it seemed all she cared about was love, (read: One night stands). She certainly loved to go out to clubs and roll home around three thirty in the morning.

She was also very much a heart breaker. She never had a boyfriend last longer than a week, if they were lucky, and she wasn't the type to outwardly say she wasn't interested. She'd just ignore them when they came around, acting as if they were invisible, until they got the message.

But she wasn't always like that. As a teenager, Maureen was the girl you see in the back of the classroom, headphones on, bent over her notebook or her book, or her phone, and always looking for a chance to run should someone try to engage her in conversation.

She was what was called a "defensive" eater. When food was placed in front of her, she ate so fast a lot of people would worry she would make herself sick, and she smacked everyone's hands if they tried to take something from her plate.

Maureen was distrustful of royalty. She openly mocked the king and queen, rolled her eyes as soon as the prince came near her. She made no show of hiding her disgust, perhaps because she knew that the King would do nothing about it, (she was technically his daughter.)

Childhood/Early adulthood
Maureen's mother was kept away from court. When she tried to show up, asking for help because she had the king's daughter, no one was moved. The guards said she was lying, the queen said she didn't want to see someone who turned her husband astray, and the king was never actually informed of what happened.

She did get a house, (read shack) on the edge of the city, but she couldn't get a job. No one likes a Morgause, Camelot, at least, almost no one. Every once in a while, one of the king's knights dropped off some money for her and her baby, though they never said why. Maureen wonders if maybe the knights felt guilty about what was happening.

Maureen was raised on hand-me-downs, and on the cheap foods. Often times, they had bread for a meal, and that was it. Nothing on the bread. She didn't know what it was like to be truly full until she went to Ever After. Maureen hated living in poverty, but she didn't blame her mother for it. She blamed the court.

Maureen not only grew up with poverty, she grew up hearing about how she was trash and how she would never amount to anything, and much worse gossip about her and her mother, (she was often spit on as she walked to the store, or kicked, or purposefully covered in mud.)

When she turned eighteen, she came home from school with a plan. A way to get what she wanted and follow her destiny, a way to ensure that they would never go hungry again. Her mother hated it, warned her about becoming just what the townsfolk thought of her, but Maureen was so tired of not having any money because of something they couldn't control, that she didn't listen.

After getting her first fling to buy her mother a nice house and food, Maureen set her eyes on the red dress she spotted in the store's window.

Adulthood
Maureen may have been gung-ho to use her destiny to get what she wanted for her and her mother, but she wanted to be careful. She didn't want to have any children other than what the legend entailed. Her childhood was awful because of what people thought she'd do, that she would rather die than expose anyone else to that.

But life doesn't go the way you planned. Someone who was not supposed to be seduced by her, someone that she didn't even want to fall in love with her, did, and got her pregnant with a child that she knew for a fact wasn't scripted. Maureen was horrified.

She found a nice village, where she birthed her baby in secret, and didn't want to hold her. She didn't want to be attached to a baby that she knew she couldn't bring into her life, she hated her life. But hold her she did, just briefly, staring at the identical hazel eyes her baby had, and falling in love. When a man came in, saying he would take the baby, she carefully handed her to him, saying one thing: "Her name's Naomi."

She was thankful that the baby was free of anyone discovering what her destiny was, and even more thankful she wouldn't have another unscripted child because her death was coming up in about a week. She did stop at the stables to leave a box there, because in her, quite possibly even worse than her childhood, adulthood, she had befriended the head groom. She instructed him that she hoped with all her might her child would not step within 100 miles of the castle, but if she did, he was to give this to her when she'd set out on her adult life.

Half-Brother: Arzh Pendragon
Arzh wanted to love her. She knew that her half-brother wanted to act like a brother to her, when he was a tween, he'd personally drop some nice things at their house, and she didn't blame him for how she grew up. (She wasn't quite sure how he knew she existed, she figured he must have grilled one of the knights). If things were different, they would have been close, she knew, but things weren't different, and she was just left to fantasize about what would happen if things were different.

Daughter: Naomi Orcades
After Maureen's death, they were trying to find a successor. They searched high and low to find one, until one day, a young woman mentioned that Maureen had frequented the village and had left a baby behind. A few DNA tests later, and Naomi was brought to King Arzh's castle to be instructed and taken care of. Not horrible, but a far cry from a normal childhood, and definitely not what Maureen wanted.

Romance
As a teen, Maureen had no interest in romance, her attire and her attitude probably wouldn't have helped her find romance even if she wanted that. She did have many affairs with those who her story entailed, and used it to get rich as she grew up, but she still never truly fell in love.