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Sascha Theresia Withers (born September 14, 1998) was an American collegiate volleyball player for the California Golden Bears. Withers was set to commit to play for Imoco Volley with teammate Vanessa Forte for the 2019 A1 Serie Season, but suffered from an ACL Tear and subsequent retirement from the professional sports realm.
As of late 2023/early 2024, Withers now lives in the Fabletown, San Francisco. She is a volunteer Firefighter for San Francisco County, and a Forestry Technician for the US Forest Service. Previously she served as a seasonal Wildland Firefighter while living in Santa Cruz County.
[See also: Fabletown residents]
| STRENGTH | DEXTERITY | INTELLIGENCE | HEALTH |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | 11 | 10 | 13 |
ESTJ-T Executive
| Patient | Loyal | Forgiving | Dependable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orderly | Selfless | Steadfast | Protective |
| Challenging | Repressed | Self-critical | Stubborn |
Sascha Withers has had a pretty good run trying to be a model citizen, colleague, and community member. She makes an effort to finish everything she starts, dotting her i’s and crossing her t’s - and she’ll cross yours, too, without much of a second thought. A helping hand no matter what task, she believes supporting those around her is simply what she’s made to do. Whether it be from fable, or natural inclination, she sees herself as a resource - a resource willingly shared with the strange, albeit endearing, community of Fabletown.
A straightforward, semiserious exterior hides a rather compassionate underbelly that is not as easily expressed. She may say what she thinks - but she has a much harder time saying what she feels. Though far from stoney, Sascha has a hard time relaxing. She is easily the type of person that, when prompted to have a ‘chill day inside’, would express interest in taking a several mile long hike.
While patient in the worst of times, thanks to a relatively level head, Sascha can be somewhat challenging to deal with long term. Maybe old habits die hard, but she wants your best, and it’s hard for her to accept a comfortable plateau long-term. One might argue nature vs. nurture as for disposition, and she might argue that what is natural can, and should, be cultivated. She is far from wishing everyone to be a copy of her, or to share her sentiments, but would rather everyone strive to be a better version of themselves.
Her loyalty is not a flimsy thing, and when gifted, it is very seldom taken away. She can forgive quite easily, even if it doesn’t seem like the right thing to do externally. This is, however, highly contingent on if the mistake is directed at her, or at someone she is fond of. Just as easily as it can be endearing, it can be a bit much; protective to a fault, Sascha can get a bit self-sacrificial.
Decisive and confident when dealing with territory that is somehow familiar - indecisive when things fall out of her scope of experience. Sees herself as morally ambiguous, though ultimately ‘good’.
Sascha Theresia Withers was born in northern Placer County, California, where her parents had relocated in the mid 90s to better suit their idea of ‘Canon’. Despite the distance from Fabletown and their private disposition, her family remained dedicated Canonists. And as descendants of relatively positive lineages, offprints from [Goldilocks and The Three Bears] and The Huntsman [ATU 333, Little Red Riding Hood], they had little reason not to be! They maintained their beliefs outside Fabletown, making the trip to attend services at Ex Libris Cathedral during major holidays.
She came to understand early on that most mother's did not have three beds for the purpose of choosing which one was “just right”. A variety of fairytales and fables altered how she perceived the world around her from a young age; the lessons from The Ants and The Grasshopper, The Wasp and The Snake, and, of course, the story of Little Red Riding Hood still remain with her. Many times her father recounted the tale as if it were his own; his daughter developed a fear of canines as a result. The Big Bad Wolf is a bit of a boogeyman, after all, even behind bars. When she learned that wolves and foxes, the typical no-good-doers of storybooks, could look like people with the help of magic - she was horrified. Initially, Sascha had a skewed view on Glamour, then still quite limited in the Fabled population. With fables like The Wolf and the Horse, though, she came to understand that sometimes a different face meant accreditation for good deeds. And, naturally fables like The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, and her great-grandfather’s story, tempered the idea from full naivety.
Sascha was raised to prioritize order, responsibility, and hard work - bravery and selflessness were added easily with the idea of her ‘destiny’. With grey hair instead of her mother’s golden locks, and a knack for defending the other girls in her class, it was clear she was more likely to follow in her father’s - and grandfather’s, and great-grandfather’s - footsteps. When she was not busy with schoolwork, or reading her fables, Sascha could be found playing volleyball, volunteering, or exploring the woods in her area - no little red hood necessary. On paper, she was what many would consider a 'perfect' child, rarely causing any trouble, comparable to the sister several years her senior, who took after her mother much more.
She attended a non-fable school, and eventually found her niche on the court, with a volleyball against her palm. Her height, which was once a source of awkwardness, became an asset and source of confidence. She was useful to her team, and good at what she was doing! She finished as a four-year letterwinner during her Senior year, and her team secures district titles and placement.
Following her successful high school volleyball career, Sascha was picked up by the University of California, Berkeley. She committed to play for the Golden Bears and planned to pursue a degree in Ecosystem Management and Forestry, a reasonable exploration of her interests. Her parents were pleased, due to its proximity to San Francisco. In her first year, Sascha attends a handful of services in the pews of the high steepled Cathedral that was so familiar - but never stayed for very long on her lonesome, feeling oddly foreign among the many shapes and faces of fabled. Opposing views on how to prevent fracturing in this realm cause a bit of internal contention within Sascha; something she could not easily answer. By her second year, she stopped attending often, edging towards stubborn and entire focus upon her studies and sport instead, much to her father’s disappointment. Her mundane world rarely dealt with destiny at the same level as Canon sermons, which made it much easier to ignore, something she would later deem irresponsible and foolish.
An active member of the Forestry Club at Berkeley, an Opposite Hitter on the starting line up her sophomore year, and an altogether dedicated teammate, Sascha hardly stopped doing. It’s a comfortable rhythm.
Unfortunately, during the California fires of 2018 her family home was destroyed, as well as most of their belongings; her parents decided to relocate and live with her uncle and aunt in Boundary County, Idaho, taking after other’s in their family [namely the original Huntsman, who was somewhere in Alaska, ‘taming’ the frontier] who sought their Canon in semi-isolation. The destruction instead strengthened her resolve in her studies, and her capstone project began to focus on natural methods of fire mitigation within Northern California. While she still struggled with what her role should be in modern day America, and if she believed in fate and Canon at all - she knew that she wanted to protect in some way.
But, with an offer to play for Imoco Volley with teammate and friend Vanessa Forte after graduation, 2019 seemed to be looking a great deal more promising, and a professional volleyball career seemed possible - no fate or talk of Grimms necessary. Despite volleyball being entirely out of the pages of the EverAfterian book, she’d managed to make it her place.
Unable to escape further disaster, Sascha tore her ACL in her last season at Berkeley. She warmed the bench for the rest of the season. Ultimately she chose to step back from Professional Volleyball all together, deciding that it would be serving herself, the opposite of what she was ‘supposed’ to be doing if she pursued it further. She graduated with relatively strong grades, an EMF degree with a specialization in Forestry, and bid her friends moving on farewell.
Post graduation, Withers moves to just outside Bonner’s Ferry, on the Withers’ Ranch, for a short time to recuperate post-surgery. While she did enjoy the work [albeit limited] that she could do, she decides to move back to California. Though she had the intention of moving to San Francisco post recovery, she locks up in the decision - Fabletown is a mixed bag. It carried the nostalgia of words spilled off of pages held in a child’s hands, stories that were never just stories - but also the reality that she would be swimming in boots she wasn’t sure how to fill, a rare streak of cowardice and worn through confidence. She puts it off for after 2019’s fire season, which had already led her to make conflicting arrangements.
She moves to the Santa Cruz area, and begins volunteering immediately, buzzing with trail projects, park tours, and volleyball clubs. She trains as a Wildland Firefighter for one season in Monterey County, then travels within the county and state for another two, elapsing three total years with odd jobs off fire season.
Sascha starts to get the feeling that it was rather easy to be… ‘normal’. San Francisco and it’s Fabletown feel more and more out of reach by the day. Trolls are just annoying people on the internet, and fairies were just five-year-olds with a neck full of Claire’s jewelry and a tutu - the longer she lived in the mundane world, the longer she stopped looking for other Fabled all together, turning a blind eye to any obvious uses of glamour. In a way, it leads her to view it more positively; she would not be able to recognize a beast from any other businessman. Maybe they too wanted an unexciting existance - at least in comparison to what Fabletown’s residents, stores, and hullaballoo had to offer.
Sascha gets her first [normal] girlfriend, listens to [normal] music, has [normal] friends, serves [normal] people, still upholding at least a piece of the sky that otherwise seemed free standing. Everything seemed to be going great, and she thinks she can learn to be happy with what she’s got. As her mother might say - just right.
…And then things started going not so well. She’s dumped once, then dumped again [for real this time, much to her disappointment]. She misses a couple of events, ghosts friends, and, most egregiously to her, skips work one day all together - no call, no show. Overwhelmed with the amount of weight she’s loaded on over three years already, she starts to feel the sky crack and tumble down above her. It’s simple burn out, but it isn’t simple. Instead of attributing it to a quarter life crisis driven by increasingly complex feelings around her origin, the Canon, and her purpose, Sascha blames it on sticking in Santa Cruz longer than she’d meant to. Though hardly in touch with feelings, she recognizes that she feels the same as she did a few years prior, when she’d given up on going pro, but thinks that maybe this time, she needed to do it right.
She’d thought that she was in some sort of middle ground, like Goldilocks had found in her tale - but it was clear she was still sitting in a bowl of porridge that was just too cold. While she’d never fully embraced being an Offprint, living outside Fabletown quite normally her entire life, she knew that full embrace was just as much of an extreme as living solely in the mundane world - a bowl too hot. She needed to learn how to find the middle ground, how to balance giants and pixies with controlled burns, the ‘just right’.
She finishes out the season, no more missed days, promises visits and to stay in touch - and packs her boxes to move to San Francisco’s very own Fabletown.
Sascha does not fling herself into introductions willy nilly; while taking her time to review many of her childhood books, she renews her familiarity with the districts of Fabletown, the rows of odd buildings and the faces of strangers. After a week or two of acclimating to seeing dragons on her way to the store, she leaps into both San Francisco, and its hidden gem of a borough - hoping this time she can have a happy medium.
[Loose event predictions - entirely flexible based on mod discretion.]
Sascha has attended the How Weird Street Faire once or twice before, when she was much, much younger. It hardly looks how she remembers - though, to its credit, she hardly remembers it at all. It is likely that she will follow along with friends or acquaintances for most of the happenings. She is eager to help, and to be involved - whether that’s getting to the bottom of a missing stereo, enduring a few slammed doors while offering Glamours, or… surviving a Fairy Godmother attack? Fabletown is seriously more fantastical than people let on.
“Huntsman? Do you mean… The Woodcutter? Sounds fitting - have you seen that axe?”
→ In the French version, the Huntsman is referred to as the Woodcutter. [It’s recommended to not bring this up during family gatherings]. Side note: it is inadvisable to bring forestry equipment anywhere but the forest.
“Withers is just everywhere! You can’t turn the corner without running into her!”
→ You’ve got a problem? She’s got a solution! …Or so she seems to think. An extreme busy body, Sascha can be found often, helping Grandma across the street with groceries, hustling to yet another obligation, or simply taking a nice afternoon walk.
“It’s always threes with that one.”
→ Maybe it’s superstition, or maybe it’s a leftover from Goldilocks, but Sascha swears everything happens to her in threes. She’s had her three bad things - can she have her good three now?
General Information
Real Name
Born
Status
Spike
Block
Though not quite a concept a young child could understand, The Wasp and The Snake bears an odd resonance to her character. Sascha can act in ways befitting ‘mutual destruction’. Not vengeful by what she sees as choice, but rather situation, it’s a rare occurrence.
Sascha has a bit of a mixed opinion of origin wolves and their offprints. While she grew up believing that people should strive to follow their canon - that isn’t very easy or advisable when your canon is eating little girls and their grandmothers.
Even as she struggled between choosing mundanity or fabled destiny, Sascha never really let go of the fables and stories that had raised her. It would be nearly impossible to remember them all - but she’s familiar enough with what Aesop and the Grimm’s penned to know most of the big ones. Foreign tales or tales of a smaller popularity might… slip her mind.
RP PREFERENCE
When in doubt, just ask me ahead of time. I am capable of lit [seriously, I’m wordy], but semi lit/ casual writing will probably suit me better :’)
SHIPPING
I’m of the ‘if it happens, it happens’ camp. I’m pretty shy, but 9 times out of 10, if you’re raising an eyebrow going ‘hm… maybe…’, then I probably am too!
NSFW
If I don’t know you well, please don’t say anything unsolicited - I don’t really see this being a problem! And jokes are usually fine.
TRIGGERS
If anything comes up, I will let you know!