MIRANDA DENISE DEHAAN

 AGE    28 (pre-war) / 238 (fo4)

 BIRTHDAY    june 2, 2049

 ORIENTATION    heterosexual

 APPEARANCE    miranda takes care of her appearance more fastidiously than most in the wasteland. she keeps her hair braided - something she stopped going to salons for during the long, broke years of college and veterinary school - and does her best to take care of her teeth and skin, too, with what remnants of the old world she can find. she stands at approximately 5'3", but, before the war, was constantly wearing heels, making her appear much taller. while she gets more practical with her fashion after waking up in the commonwealth, she still loves dresses, cardigans, jumpsuits, and anything in bright, springy tones. (dark colors are a no-go for a vet trying to hide all the dog and cat fur on their clothes).   FACECLAIM    freema agyeman.

 PERSONALITY    from the moment she had the voice to express such sentiments, miranda has been an optimist. her approach to life has always erred on the side of romance and whimsy. she knows that the world is a difficult and unfair place, but god help her if she isn't there to enjoy and improve it, anyway. as a result, she tends to see potential where others don't: a limping, underweight dog is only a good meal and exam away from being the perfect family pet. the anxious boy at the locker next to her in high school? totally boyfriend material. and the damaged ruins of a nuclear wasteland? well, she can find a way to find hope there, too, especially if she intends on building a home for her son. 

miranda tends to take most things in stride and shows a startling amount of resilience. like anyone, she experiences more difficult emotions: anger, sorrow, grief, but is far more inclined to keep them buried, seldom confiding in anyone. she lost all of her close friends when the bombs dropped, and digging beyond that cheerful smile on her face is no easy feat.

  HISTORY  

for her parents, jasmine and levi collins, miranda was a blessing that they had waited a long time to bestow upon the world. everything about her arrival was meticulously planned: both of them were in their thirties and primed to handle the difficulties of raising a child. they had each climbed the corporate ladder, securing jobs that would enable them to provide for said child. before jasmine got pregnant, they closed on a house in a simple, suburban neighborhood. it was an idyllic picture and, in many ways, a perfect family.

however, as she grew up, miranda often felt somewhat lonely; her parents remained very career-focused, and they never had any other children. few other kids her age lived in the neighborhood, so she was forced to choose between her own company or pester their elderly neighbors -- who met her friendliness with varying levels of acceptance. she learned to rely on herself for entertainment, getting lost in daydreams and inventing her own little worlds. when she was seven, her father built her a treehouse, and it became her safe haven. there, she would stow away her coloring books and stuffed animals; she would host solitary sleepovers and watch the stars, and, each spring, she looked forward to surveying the nests that songbirds would build on the branches just outside the treehouse's window. 

despite some of the isolation she experienced in her youngest years, miranda was undoubtedly always a chatterbox and never struggled socializing with her peers, once she had the opportunity presented to her. give her a few minutes, and she could become friends with anyone. she prided herself on that skill, particularly when her first year of high school rolled around. many of her middle school friends had gone to different high schools. in many ways, she was starting fresh. it didn't take her long to flit between different groups, assuring she always had a social circle to keep her company throughout the year. except, they didn't interest her half as much as the boy who had the locker next to hers. 

she learned through others that his name was nate. a lot of them made fun of him, but mostly behind his back. he never talked in any of their classes. where they saw a strange boy, she noted high scores plastered on the tests teachers handed back to him in math and science. she knew there had to be even more to him beneath that, and made it her mission to become his friend.

of course, she never intended to develop a crush on him, never dreamed of him stammering his way through an invite to homecoming, his cheeks so red she was a little worried he might pass out. they became completely inseparable, bonding over their love of animals (her family had a pomeranian, and he'd had a bunny since he was twelve), nature, and academics. 

she was heartbroken when he enlisted in the military at his father's behest when they were 18. she was prepared to lose him entirely, but, to her surprise, nate proposed to her after their high school graduation, promising to come back to her. 

she accepted. two years later, in the middle of her undergrad and during his military leave, they eloped in a small, courthouse ceremony. he went back to war, she went back to school.

two years after that, she graduated with her undergraduate degree in animal science and was accepted into veterinary school. she grew used to an independent life, marked by lectures and late nights studying and letters exchanged with her husband on the front lines. time flew by: she graduated veterinary school and secured a job at a small, local vet clinic. then came the call that nate was coming home. she would have been overjoyed, except the officer's voice sounded so grim. 

when nate came back, he looked mostly the same. he'd filled out some, and the bags under his eyes were more prominent. she tried her best to ignore the haunted look in his eyes, or the sense that, while he had returned to her as he promised, some part of him had been left thousands of miles away. she helped him through near-constant panic attacks and intense agoraphobia. she held him when he woke up sobbing, or kept him company on the nights when he couldn't sleep at all. he tried a half dozen therapists and slowly improved, taking on temp work at an office not far from the vet clinic she worked at. often, she wondered what had happened to the timid boy she met when she was 14 -- what had the war done to him? but he never talked about it, and she couldn't bring herself to ask more than a few times.

when she realized she was pregnant in early 2077, nearly two full years since nate's return to civilian life, she hoped it would brighten up their marriage. to her dismay, nate's mental health grew worse, despite his best efforts to work with therapists. still, they pressed on, bought a house in sanctuary hills, and she gave birth to their son, shaun, in late 2077. 

she would never know if their little family would find a way to peace, as the bombs dropped on october 23, 2077.