McMurphy overdose
Warning: This post is mostly text, and for that I am sorry.
Longtime readers (as if I've gained any new readers) will remember Garrett McMurphy from these posts, which also feature his wife Cynthia and their roomate/squatter/pseudo-daughter, Tara Monroe. For those who don't want to go over the past, here's a quick version of their story: Cynthia is a mutant and so is Tara, who was kicked out of her house and so began living with Cynthia. Garrett, who is trans, met and married Cynthia, who is 15 years older than him, and they are absolutely besotted with each other. Tara meanwhile met Phillip Carraway, a guy who lived at boarding school.
Anyway, while I was not posting in El Jay land, Garrett and Cynthia had a family and grew old together, and now their kids have kids, and now I'm plopping the rest of the story down here.
This is all of the McMurphy/ Carraway clan:
Oh yeah, there are a lot of them.
Let's start with the patriarch and matriarch: This is Garrett and Cynthia McMurphy in their (adorable) old age.
Garrett became a journalist, and now that he's retired he spends a lot of time refurbishing old cars, just for kicks. He's pretty close to all of the kids, although somewhat less close to Tara and her family because they're not blood related.
Cynthia, who spent her entire life teaching high school, finally retired and now loves gardening, cooking, and taking care of her grandkids. She's a little worried about what will happen to Garrett when she's gone, although she's determined to enjoy the time she has left.
They both are still completely infatuated with each other and actually spend more time woohoo'ing than most of my younger couples. They are sweethearts.
Tara Monroe, Cynthia's unofficial first child, ended up marrying her high school sweetheart Phillip Caraway. Actually, what happened was she moved out of the McMurphy house when their son hit his teen years, and into a trailer with Phillip, where they lived quite happily unmarried until Tara accidentally got pregnant with Seth, their older son. They tied the knot rather abruptly to get full health insurance for Seth.
Tara, surprisingly, became a stay-at-home mom when Seth was born. At first it was out of necessity (she couldn't find a decent job) but she realized she liked being a full-time mom. She is intelligent, good at fixing things and cooking, and friendly, although she can sometimes be a little cold.
Phillip (in the back, with the hat and dreads) is a chef. He's kind of silly and actually a little bit of a man-child...he still wants to be in a rock band despite being almost 40. He's also extremely devoted to his family and has passed up on a lot of opportunities because he values them so much. He and Tara have a tacitly good-natured relationship- they don't have the kind of adoration for each other that Cynthia and Garrett have, but they are very comfortable together.
Their older son, Seth, is about midway through college. He grew up as sort of a free spirit, since his parents have always treated him as an adult and given him a pretty free reign to do what he wants. As a result, he's very self-assured and confident that he can handle almost anything. I'm going to do a post on him a little later.
The last kid, Jason, was born well after his brother (obviously). He's fairly average overall, likes sports and skateboarding like a lot of kids his age. He idolizes Seth. I don't have that much info about him because, like most of the younger grandkids, he hasn't been a child for very long.
Next up: Connor McMurphy and his family.
Connor is Garrett and Cynthia's eldest. You can't see in this picture, but he has mismatched eyes- one blue like Garrett's, and one yellow/orange like Cynthia's. He's a mutant too, with mild mind-reading powers, and he used to passionately hate both his parents for being what he considered freaks. When he was a kid, all he wanted to do was blend in, but his eye made it impossible, and having a visible mutant for a mother and a transman for a father didn't exactly help. Connor spent most of his childhood as a hateful, ungrateful little prick, which bummed his parents out a lot. Finally Tara sat him down when he was about 15 and had a talk with him about what good people his parents were, and basically told him to not be such a dick. Since then he's reconciled with both of his parents and actually considers Garrett his model for good parenthood. He's an artist now, and while he can still be surly and difficult, for the most part he's a good guy.
His wife, Donna (in the back), is actually the daughter of July and Dean Marcus, featured in these very old posts. Donna is serene, quiet, and sweet. She's very implacable mostly and also super-smart (she's a biologist). Her calm demeanor comes in handy when Connor is being moody. Donna was very shy growing up, and found herself overshadowed by her more popular twin (featured in a later post probably). She was often bullied in high school, so when a tall boy with mismatched eyes stood up for her one day in class, she was immediately smitten. They actually got married during college, and they've been together ever since.
Madison, the teen in the blue dress, is a favorite of mine. She's usually girly and sweet, a perfect example of a cute indie kid, but she has a not-so-secret love of getting grimy and fixing mechanical things, just like her grandfather. She loves, loves, loves being more than she seems. She's very popular and makes friends easily, thinks her brothers are a little annoying and her dad is a little bit crazy, but she loves them all anyway.
Stephen is the kid in front with the glasses, Connor and Donna's second child.. He's inherited Cynthia's eyes too, and is a little bit like a human metal detector. Like his sister he likes mechanical things, although he's more into computers, hardware, and programming. He likes to think of himself as an athlete although he's not actually very good at any sports, por guy. Other than being kind of a wimp, he's pretty normal, and very intelligent.
The youngest, Dean, is still a toddler so he's not very interesting. He is in fact named after Donna's dad, who died in a fire, along with July, before Madison was born.
The last family we have is that of Lizzie McMurphy.
Lizzie, the blonde in the green shirt, is Garrett and Cynthia's other child. She grew up as sort of the darling of the household- Connor even liked her when he hated everyone else. Lizzie relies on her looks a lot more than she probably should, but still is pretty intelligent and motivated. She's always been a hipster, very interested in photography and art, and now writes for a living (she's published several pulpy novels about Alan Stone, a detective who talks to ghosts). She and Connor are best friends.
Lizzie met her wife, Kacey, in college. Kacey is very solid and dependable, and extremely down to earth, which is good because Lizzie can get pretty pretentious. Kacey is a very serious animal lover and works at a wilderness refuge outside of town. She also does a lot of the parenting for their two daughters, because she's frankly a lot better at it.
They have twin daughters, Phoebe and Kira. Phoebe is older by about 10 minutes, and she's the one in front with the short hair. She's intensely, intensely shy, and has a lot of phobias and anxiety disorders. She's pretty nice but it gets buried under all her fears, which is a shame.
Kira, the one with the braid in back, is sort of the opposite. She's gregarious and silly, loves spending time with other people, and is almost fearless. She often gets exasperated with her sister but would defend her against anything.
So that's the fighting McMurphys, all 15 of them. I'm going to do sporadic updates on their doings from time to time, but probably not in a massive family group like here. Hopefully at least some of this was interesting.
Longtime readers (as if I've gained any new readers) will remember Garrett McMurphy from these posts, which also feature his wife Cynthia and their roomate/squatter/pseudo-daughter, Tara Monroe. For those who don't want to go over the past, here's a quick version of their story: Cynthia is a mutant and so is Tara, who was kicked out of her house and so began living with Cynthia. Garrett, who is trans, met and married Cynthia, who is 15 years older than him, and they are absolutely besotted with each other. Tara meanwhile met Phillip Carraway, a guy who lived at boarding school.
Anyway, while I was not posting in El Jay land, Garrett and Cynthia had a family and grew old together, and now their kids have kids, and now I'm plopping the rest of the story down here.
This is all of the McMurphy/ Carraway clan:
Oh yeah, there are a lot of them.
Let's start with the patriarch and matriarch: This is Garrett and Cynthia McMurphy in their (adorable) old age.
Garrett became a journalist, and now that he's retired he spends a lot of time refurbishing old cars, just for kicks. He's pretty close to all of the kids, although somewhat less close to Tara and her family because they're not blood related.
Cynthia, who spent her entire life teaching high school, finally retired and now loves gardening, cooking, and taking care of her grandkids. She's a little worried about what will happen to Garrett when she's gone, although she's determined to enjoy the time she has left.
They both are still completely infatuated with each other and actually spend more time woohoo'ing than most of my younger couples. They are sweethearts.
Tara Monroe, Cynthia's unofficial first child, ended up marrying her high school sweetheart Phillip Caraway. Actually, what happened was she moved out of the McMurphy house when their son hit his teen years, and into a trailer with Phillip, where they lived quite happily unmarried until Tara accidentally got pregnant with Seth, their older son. They tied the knot rather abruptly to get full health insurance for Seth.
Tara, surprisingly, became a stay-at-home mom when Seth was born. At first it was out of necessity (she couldn't find a decent job) but she realized she liked being a full-time mom. She is intelligent, good at fixing things and cooking, and friendly, although she can sometimes be a little cold.
Phillip (in the back, with the hat and dreads) is a chef. He's kind of silly and actually a little bit of a man-child...he still wants to be in a rock band despite being almost 40. He's also extremely devoted to his family and has passed up on a lot of opportunities because he values them so much. He and Tara have a tacitly good-natured relationship- they don't have the kind of adoration for each other that Cynthia and Garrett have, but they are very comfortable together.
Their older son, Seth, is about midway through college. He grew up as sort of a free spirit, since his parents have always treated him as an adult and given him a pretty free reign to do what he wants. As a result, he's very self-assured and confident that he can handle almost anything. I'm going to do a post on him a little later.
The last kid, Jason, was born well after his brother (obviously). He's fairly average overall, likes sports and skateboarding like a lot of kids his age. He idolizes Seth. I don't have that much info about him because, like most of the younger grandkids, he hasn't been a child for very long.
Next up: Connor McMurphy and his family.
Connor is Garrett and Cynthia's eldest. You can't see in this picture, but he has mismatched eyes- one blue like Garrett's, and one yellow/orange like Cynthia's. He's a mutant too, with mild mind-reading powers, and he used to passionately hate both his parents for being what he considered freaks. When he was a kid, all he wanted to do was blend in, but his eye made it impossible, and having a visible mutant for a mother and a transman for a father didn't exactly help. Connor spent most of his childhood as a hateful, ungrateful little prick, which bummed his parents out a lot. Finally Tara sat him down when he was about 15 and had a talk with him about what good people his parents were, and basically told him to not be such a dick. Since then he's reconciled with both of his parents and actually considers Garrett his model for good parenthood. He's an artist now, and while he can still be surly and difficult, for the most part he's a good guy.
His wife, Donna (in the back), is actually the daughter of July and Dean Marcus, featured in these very old posts. Donna is serene, quiet, and sweet. She's very implacable mostly and also super-smart (she's a biologist). Her calm demeanor comes in handy when Connor is being moody. Donna was very shy growing up, and found herself overshadowed by her more popular twin (featured in a later post probably). She was often bullied in high school, so when a tall boy with mismatched eyes stood up for her one day in class, she was immediately smitten. They actually got married during college, and they've been together ever since.
Madison, the teen in the blue dress, is a favorite of mine. She's usually girly and sweet, a perfect example of a cute indie kid, but she has a not-so-secret love of getting grimy and fixing mechanical things, just like her grandfather. She loves, loves, loves being more than she seems. She's very popular and makes friends easily, thinks her brothers are a little annoying and her dad is a little bit crazy, but she loves them all anyway.
Stephen is the kid in front with the glasses, Connor and Donna's second child.. He's inherited Cynthia's eyes too, and is a little bit like a human metal detector. Like his sister he likes mechanical things, although he's more into computers, hardware, and programming. He likes to think of himself as an athlete although he's not actually very good at any sports, por guy. Other than being kind of a wimp, he's pretty normal, and very intelligent.
The youngest, Dean, is still a toddler so he's not very interesting. He is in fact named after Donna's dad, who died in a fire, along with July, before Madison was born.
The last family we have is that of Lizzie McMurphy.
Lizzie, the blonde in the green shirt, is Garrett and Cynthia's other child. She grew up as sort of the darling of the household- Connor even liked her when he hated everyone else. Lizzie relies on her looks a lot more than she probably should, but still is pretty intelligent and motivated. She's always been a hipster, very interested in photography and art, and now writes for a living (she's published several pulpy novels about Alan Stone, a detective who talks to ghosts). She and Connor are best friends.
Lizzie met her wife, Kacey, in college. Kacey is very solid and dependable, and extremely down to earth, which is good because Lizzie can get pretty pretentious. Kacey is a very serious animal lover and works at a wilderness refuge outside of town. She also does a lot of the parenting for their two daughters, because she's frankly a lot better at it.
They have twin daughters, Phoebe and Kira. Phoebe is older by about 10 minutes, and she's the one in front with the short hair. She's intensely, intensely shy, and has a lot of phobias and anxiety disorders. She's pretty nice but it gets buried under all her fears, which is a shame.
Kira, the one with the braid in back, is sort of the opposite. She's gregarious and silly, loves spending time with other people, and is almost fearless. She often gets exasperated with her sister but would defend her against anything.
So that's the fighting McMurphys, all 15 of them. I'm going to do sporadic updates on their doings from time to time, but probably not in a massive family group like here. Hopefully at least some of this was interesting.