Olive Wright

Where would we be without Olive?

If our little group of high schoolers was a wheel, Olive would be the spokes that connect it and keep it from collapsing under pressure. That’s how I see her.

During character creation, Olive was connected to both Chris and Atticus, and as we’ve seen by now, sometimes she’s the only thing keeping those two from clashing. But really, Olive connects to everyone. Throughout the story, no matter what struggles or conflicts they go through, I don’t think any of the group ever have cause to doubt that Olive cares about them. And that’s a big deal for anyone, but for a group of teenagers experiencing traumatic events and feeling isolated from their peers? That’s everything.

When it came to alter egos, the media role model Laura presented me with was a Shakespearean character, which was a curve ball for me. I barely remembered having seen Much Ado About Nothing, and so I had to dive into examinations of the play and the character of Beatrice in particular to figure out how to make that character’s particular traits function as empowering under the Fate rules. I’m pretty proud of the stunts I came up with for her, given my unfamiliarity with the character.

I identify with Olive in several ways. I’m familiar with being tall and awkward and not wanting to be seen. I’ve spent my time as a people pleaser as well, and I know the curse of being unable to see one’s own value. And I’ve seen a few anime in my day.

In the end, if there were a Lantern Cove character I would want to point to and say, ‘That one there. I should try to be more like that one,’ I would have to go with Olive. Through everything, she supports her friends with caring and empathy, even when they’re being difficult to connect with, and I think that’s admirable.

Sera