History

Little Sister

Amanda was born on April 13, 1996, to Alan and Naomi Steele, in Lakewood. Her birth was an unexpected one. Following the birth of her son Richard a decade earlier, Naomi had been told she could no longer bear children. The very religious Naomi welcomed the birth of her daughter as a miracle, and Amanda’s birth briefly healed a rift that had been growing between husband and wife.

Growing up, Amanda was a tomboy, preferring cars, sports, and the outdoors. This was in large part due to Richard, who Amanda hero-worshipped.

Richard enlisted in the U.S. Army as soon as he turned 18 and went on to serve in the Iraq War, being deployed at the height of domestic support for the conflict. Richard headed overseas, hailed as a hero by the people of Lakewood, though Naomi fervently tried to keep him from leaving her.

Her fears proved prescient. In 2006, Richard caught the brunt of an IED blast outside Baghdad. He was honorably discharged from the service and subjected to extensive reconstructive surgery and physical therapy. Though the doctors were able to save his life, Richard’s face was horribly scarred, and his vocal cords severed, depriving him of his voice.

Her brother’s grisly fate shattered Amanda’s spirit, and the cruel, senseless injustice of the tragedy deteriorated the strong faith she had been raised in. Though Amanda continued being part of Howard Jensen’s youth group at Lakewood First Lutheran, she was never as devoted to the spiritual practice of her faith again, seeing church as more of a social exercise than anything else.

Big Sister

The anger Amanda carried from Richard’s ordeal needed an outlet, which she found by putting bullies in their place. When Amanda was in middle school, she stepped in to stop a cadre of schoolyard bullies, including wealthy ‘mean girl’ Nina Patterson, from picking on Audrey Jensen, the pastor’s daughter. As a member of Howard’s church, Amanda had known Audrey since she was born, but the two girls had never been close, Audrey having been an introverted, withdrawn little girl.

Audrey was inspired by Amanda’s support and, emboldened, tried the same trick for herself, chasing some bullies away from a classmate of hers: the nerdy Noah Foster, who went on to become her best friend. Amanda remained close to Audrey and, in time, to Noah as well, and became a sort of honorary big sister to them both, defending them both from other children’s cruelty.¹

She was a pillar of support for Audrey during her mother’s battle with cancer and her father’s simultaneous struggles with alcoholism. With the help of her friend, the initially reluctant Jamie Teague, daughter of Howard’s best friend, Amanda helped bring some order to the Jensen household during some of the darkest days of Audrey’s life.

Vicious Rumors

On October 18, 2015, Amanda was working overtime at Big Mike’s when Noah alerted her to an emergency: a video had been uploaded to YouTube, depicting Audrey making out with a girl. The candid footage, uploaded under the name “LAKEWOOD LEZZIES CAUGHT IN 4K”, quickly went viral locally, prompting a slew of homophobic mockery at the girls’ expense.

Correctly deducing Audrey would be on the warpath, Noah called Amanda, who gave him a lift to Brooke Maddox’s house.² They arrived to find Audrey had beaten them, crashing Brooke’s party to confront the people she knew to be responsible for the video: the school’s “in-crowd”, most notably, her old friend Emma Duval. Amanda and Noah arrived just in time to keep Audrey from charging at Brooke while a hapless Emma looked on. Amanda diffused the situation and Brooke removed herself to the house, taking Emma with her. Audrey wasn’t grateful for the save and stalked off.³

Before they could follow her, Amanda and Noah were intercepted by Nina and Tyler. Amanda wasted no time going after Nina for uploading the video, though Nina denied any knowledge. Exasperated, Amanda turned to Tyler and wondered why he was defending her so adamantly, given all Nina had taken from him, insinuating Nina was being unfaithful. Tyler jumped to the conclusion that Nina was cheating on him with Jake Fitzgerald (a not absurd notion, given Nina and Jake had dated briefly the previous year) and confronted him. Jake, pretty sauced after chugging a keg through a hose, laughed off the notion he’d ever go back to Nina, provoking Tyler into tackling him into Brooke’s pool.

Amanda and Noah ditched in the resulting confusion, Amanda admitting to Noah that she had no idea if Nina was really being unfaithful, but a taste of her own scandal-mongering couldn’t hurt.⁴ Amanda and Noah were separated in the fracas, Amanda heading out in search of Audrey, finding her sitting at the Wren Lake jetty, not far from the house.

Amanda was sensitive about Audrey’s forced outing, but Audrey had no capacity for pity, eventually reluctantly telling her a bit about Rachel, the girl she was kissing in the video, and admitting her fears she wouldn’t be able to handle the fallout. Amanda tried to tell Audrey she had nothing to be ashamed of but Audrey retorted that wasn’t the point: everyone else had already made that decision for her.⁵

Blowback

The drama surrounding the video was mitigated, even if only slightly, by a more violent tragedy that had unfurled the same night. Stacy Winters and Brock Carmichael, two freshmen at GW High, were murdered. Stacy’s parents, Robert and Gina, were found dead shortly afterward. Richard was out all night on the case, so Amanda was unable to answer the overeager Noah’s many questions when she reported for school the next morning.

Amanda and Noah were both surprised to find that Audrey had no idea anything had happened, having been on a “digital detox” to put some distance between herself and the continued fallout from the video. Noah heartily decided that, at the very least, the murders would knock Audrey’s private business out of the local headlines.⁶

After school, Amanda worked a lonely shift at Big Mike’s, closing up alone, unaware she was being watched from across the street.⁷

Appearance

Amanda was a fairly complected young woman with a short but sturdy build, surprisingly hardy despite her size. She had curly blonde hair which she usually kept tied back, and big blue eyes.

After the accident, Amanda’s legs were amputated at the knee, after which she was fitted with prosthetics. Her false limbs are usually hidden beneath baggy cargoes or jeans.⁸ Her aesthetic is utilitarian, and her wardrobe tends toward the shapeless. Her uniform at Big Mike’s is comprises of a set of coveralls, more often than not stained with motor oil.⁹

Personality

Amanda’s outwardly stoic personality belies a forceful personality. Following her accident, she grappled with anger and despair which took time to moderate. She has a strong sense of justice and is protective of her friends.

Equipment

Truck: Amanda owns a truck, which she takes very good of, in keeping with her mechanic training.¹⁰

Health and Vitals

Both legs amputated at the knee after being crushed by a collapsed lift at the garage where she worked.

Crimes Committed

Trespassed on the Maddox property to keep Audrey from doing anything reckless in the wake of the kissing video.¹¹

Origins and Development

Amanda was created by TellatrixForever for the 2015 Season 1 AU. She was the first of three OCs Tellatrix ended creating for the game, but was preceded by two prototypes he combined into one: a double paraplegic named Richard Steele, who functioned as an assistant to Howard Jensen at the church, and was described as a friend of Audrey’s despite being nearly a decade older than her; and Richard’s younger sister Amanda, a neat freak redhead who worked as a waitress and, at 17, was a high school senior and was a potential love interest for Audrey.

On September 5, 2015, the day before the game began, Tellatrix combined Richard and Amanda into one person: the resulting character was still a high school senior, but was repeating the year after losing her legs in an accident. Her occupation was changed to part-time mechanic, though she also volunteered at Howard’s church. Her physical appearance also changed: the red-headed Steele prototypes didn’t have faceclaims, but the new Amanda was assigned Harry Potter actress Evanna Lynch.

Amanda went on to be one of the most prolific characters in the forum, beaten only by Deanna Wilcox for the most posts in the game. Despite this, Tellatrix didn’t bring her back for the May 2016 Season 2 AU, instead creating Jamie Teague, who inherited Amanda’s friendship with Audrey and Noah, while also being connected to Principal Edward Teague, an OC Tellatrix had brought over from the previous forum.

When The Story so Far was begun three years later, and the decision made to use the Season 1 AU as the bedrock of the first volume, Amanda’s prominence in the 2015 forum necessitated she be officially adapted into the SRU. While most of the other OCs who only appeared in that forum, such as Colin Gable and Derek Jackson, were killed off in Volume I of The Story, Amanda survived through to the end, a distinction shared only by Eliza Taylor. However, while Eliza went on to be the center of her own spin-off, Lifting the Mask, Amanda was effectively written out of the story, inevitably supplanted by Jamie in Volume II, just as her forum equivalent had been.

To reconcile this, Amanda’s fate was changed when the Volume I rewrite began in 2025: it was decided that Amanda would indeed perish during the events of Volume I.

Despite this, Amanda continues to be an active character in the SRU, appearing in Year One, where she is portrayed by ThePlotMurderer.

Other Interpretations

Original OC Bio

The following is the application for the first “Amanda Steele”, submitted by TellatrixForever to the 2015 Season 1 AU on September 3, 2015. Text is presented as it was originally displayed on Fanfiction.net, with no redactions:

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Name: Amanda Steele

Age: 17

Personality: Amanda is a neat-freak and has OCD. She’s a good people person, and is incredibly compassionate to others. But after the recent murders, she’s become less trusting.

Appearance: She’s a redhead with long hair and has blue eyes. About 4’11”, and skinny. She’s often seen wearing grey clothing and combat boots. When not on school-grounds, she’s always got a knife and Taser on her.

Likes: Books, helping others, and horror movies.

Dislikes: Bullies, the recent murders and sports.

Favorite Movie: Silence of the Lambs

Bio: Amanda is a Lakewood native. A High-School Senior, she works part-time as a waitress at the local restaurant and lives with her brother after their parents died.

Other: Possibly has a crush on Audrey.

How far do you see them lasting: I see her not lasting that long. Or, alternatively, I see her lasting right up til the end. It depends on a lot of things. And like her brother, she would go down fighting.

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Two days later, Tellatrix combined this Amanda with another OC, her older brother Richard, taking elements from both to create the character that he would go on to portray in the forum. Here is the “finished” application for Amanda Steele, submitted by Tellatrix on September 5, 2015:

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Name: Amanda Steele

Age: 18

Personality: Amanda is more intelligent than she lets on. Stoic and quiet, she’s surprisingly compassionate towards others, but has become less trusting and more paranoid because of the recent murders. She knows how to keep a secret.

Appearance: Her face claim is Evanna Lynch. She’s normally seen wearing a mechanic’s shirt with cargo pants and work boots. Off campus, she always carries a knife on her belt, as well as a Taser, for self-defense.

Likes: Working on vehicles, good movies and books, and rock music.

Dislikes: Bullies, not having her legs, spiders

Favorite Movie: Silence of the Lambs.

Bio: Amanda is a Lakewood local and has never left the state. She lost her legs from the knees down after a car accident, but has gotten very good at walking with the prosthetics they gave her. Because of this, she missed her Senior year in High School and is being forced to repeat it. When not at school, she works at the local Auto-Repair shop and often volunteers to help at the local Lutheran Church.

Other: Has a crush on Audrey.

How far do you see them lasting: I see her lasting til the end, but it would depend on a lot of factors. And if/when she did go down, she’d go down fighting.

Season 1 AU

Amanda’s raison d’être from the moment of her inception was as an opponent for Nina Patterson. Her creator, TellatrixForever, envisioned Amanda as the first person to successfully oppose Nina, and the resulting story arc ended up being the most significant scene in the forum, with respect to the wider SRU.

Amanda was also responsible for spreading a rumor that Nina was cheating on Tyler with Jake, in vengeance for Tyler making a joke about her disability,¹² and apparently to get back at him for slitting Noah’s tires three days earlier, an incident which Tyler never admits culpability for.¹³ While Tyler and Jake eventually came to an accord, Amanda herself never faced any consequences for this.

Amanda is more traditionally nerdy in her original incarnation, at one point quoting Darth Vader.¹⁴

Despite being on the outs with the popular kids, Amanda has a decent rapport with Adam Daniels, a basketball jock and close friend of Jake’s.¹⁵

Amanda was armed with a Taser¹⁶ and a Spyderco Street Bowie knife. She never has an occassion to use either weapon.¹⁷

The cause of Amanda’s accident was ambiguous in the forum, but was definitely not caused by the machinations of another character, as it would be in Lakewood: Year One.

Trivia

Amanda was technically the sixth OC to be submitted for the Season 1 AU. If one counts out her brother Richard, who she was eventually combined with, she was the fifth.

Quotes

You want to teach me manners, Patterson? Is that before or after the crash course on particle physics?

Amanda acknowledges Nina’s hypocrisy

Not that ‘you’ really came out at all. Nina took a fly swatter and whacked you out of the closet.

Amanda is sympathetic to Audrey’s forced outing

You wouldn’t have been my first gay friend. Or my third.

Amanda makes her ally case to Audrey

Don’t mind him, Parker. He gets hyper around men in uniform.

Amanda explains Noah’s inappropriate behavior away to Deputy Parker

Gallery

1. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 4 ↩︎
2. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 6 ↩︎
3. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 1 ↩︎
4. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 4 ↩︎
5. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 6 ↩︎
6. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 13 ↩︎
7. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 30 ↩︎
8. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 4 ↩︎
9. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 1 ↩︎
10. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 6 ↩︎
11. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 1 ↩︎
12. Season 1 AU: Pilot, Post 16 ↩︎
13. Season 1 AU: Pilot, Post 36 ↩︎
14. Season 1 AU: Pilot, Post 22 ↩︎
15. Season 1 AU: Pilot, Post 38 ↩︎
16. Season 1 AU: Pilot, Post 45 ↩︎
17. Season 1 AU: Pilot, Post 224 ↩︎