Fionna Helston's Studio and Apartment - General

(Cross-posted from the WestEnd setting folder)

In the warren of hulking warehouses, dead-end alleys and shifting streets that make up the WestEnd, it?s easy to get lost, whether you want to or not. Reality tends to scratch its arse and thumb its nose at logic here.

Perfect for Fi, even without the added charm of being magically instable and unscry-able. A place where she can hunker down and hide. Olly-olly-oxen-free.

The trouble for her, of course, was always going to be finding it. Fortunately, she purchased the converted warehouse in one of her more lucid lifetimes and solved that dilemma, she thought, rather nicely.

She painted the Eye.

Her eye, to be precise; larger than life. About thirty feet from street level, it stares out from the exposed South wall of the building, watching over her immediate neighborhood, and serves as her homing beacon. On the rare occasion she?s feeling humorous, she calls it the ?window to her soul,? and that might not be far off the mark. Others have added to it over the years: Makos, ravers, the occasional piss-drunk punk. The graffiti changes, the streets twist in new ways, but one thing never varies. The Eye always guides her home.

Formerly the smallest of three warehouses operated by a now-defunct flour mill, the building skirts along the inside edge of the warehouse district, not far from the charred remnants of the old Oak and Ash.

Two heavy sets of wide overhead doors on the West wall of third- and fourth-floor levels lead out to narrow ledges turned railed balconies. Once, there was a swing-arm boom that shifted pallets of heavy flour sacks from the ground to the upper floors, and back again, but that is long gone. The doors remain.

In the evenings, she opens them to the night as she paints or plays her cello counter-point to the throbbing music that always seems to be spilling from someplace along the sprawling neighborhoods of her chosen home. The noise, the dirt, the rawness of the twisting WestEnd streets make her feel alive. Sometimes, she even forgets to be afraid.

Fio Helston's Apartment and Studio - Interior Detail

NOTE: These descriptions of the Eye are outdated - before Ali put the shop in the first floor and the upper floors were remodeled. Please watch for new posts coming soon. Just realized we never revised!

Third Floor ? Interior - The Studio

The third floor of the Eye is the last that can be safely reached via the stairwell (the steps up to the fourth floor are unsound). Entering from the interior landing, one must take three or four steps inside to reach the column bearing the controls for the industrial pendant lamps hanging from the ceiling.

This space is Fio?s Studio, and the lights come up here with the flash and sparkle of a million rainbows. Mobiles hanging from the cavernous ceiling cast light and color like jeweled fairies over the vast workspace. They are made of up of the flotsam of everyday life in WestEnd ? bits of broken bottles and mirrors, silver spoons, old keys, metallic trim from abandoned vehicles, Watch whistles ? if it is shiny, it has a home on the walls or ceiling in the studio.

The rest of the space is no less of a chaotic jumble. Paper, canvas, wood and gypsum lies scattered on tables, the floor, or the backs of the overhead doors. Almost all boast paintings and sketches of people, some quite large, others small, and all done feverishly.

In addition, nearly every inch of wall in the vast open space stands covered in writing, some tiny and cramped, some spiraling, some in thick, angry bold strokes, some smears of inarticulate paint. Little of it is in common. Some is in Spanish, in Italian, in Greek, in code, in verse.

In the center of the room stands a massive, paint-stained wooden easel, alongside a chest of paints and bottles of turpentine and linseed oil, a stool. There may be a work in progress displayed there, on the right days.

The brick wall directly behind the Eye contains a large painting, done on the exposed brick, of three small children: a girl with dark, curling hair, blue-gray eyes, and freckles, about five or six years of age; with her are twin boys, identical in appearance and sporting the same coloring as their sister, and about two years of age.

On the street-facing side of the building, the ubiquitous double overhead doors have been supplemented with a railing to form a balcony. When the doors are open during the day, they are an abundant source of natural light.

Near the center of the East side of the room, stands an angled ladder leading up through a trapdoor into the 4th floor living area.

This is the basic floor plan for the apartment in the WestEnd, owned by Sinjin Fai, that Ali and Fio are currently living in.

http://i931.photobucket.com/albums/ad160/maeralin/FloorPlan.gif

(Brought this over from Random Thoughts because I didn't want to lose track of it. Alimun - bring yours, too! Those of you posting in WEE who didn't respond there are welcome to do so here, if you want. I think it provides some interesting character background.)

~~~~~

Let me just say ? answering this for your character with multiple personality disorder is harder than it sounds, even. This has taken me forever to respond to, and I will probably look at it later and think, ?Man, but I forgot about this!? So, here?s my first crack, for what it?s worth.

1) What's something your character is horrible at?
In general, because Fi is so fragmented, just getting by every day is an adventure. The longer she manages without a serious incident (i.e. being buried by ? but I digress?) the more integrated the group gets, the more the holes in their respective memories fill in, etc. When her psyche split, various talents and memories got split up, too. For example, Fio got the creative talents; she plays cello ? none of the others know how. Missie can?t read, depending on her mental age, which fluctuates between 5 and 9. And so on.

Fio ? So many things pop to mind. She can?t sing to save her life, although it doesn?t stop her, if she thinks she?s alone. She can?t cook, because she?d never had a need to. It takes her awhile to get the punch lines of jokes, and she?s never been able to roller skate without falling on her butt.
Grace ? She can?t even draw stick figures that don?t look like crap. She cries at the end of novels and hates that because it ruins her image. Math and logic are not her thing.
Missie ? Remembering to behave herself.
Mireille, AKA, the ?Commander? ? Relaxing around people. Thinking outside of her very set functional parameters. She?s extremely rigid, though she will respond if she feels her concerns are being heard. She?s great at board games, though!
Fionna, AKA, the ?Prisoner? ? Judging character, including her own. Also, she can never remember when to use ?accept? and ?except? in a sentence in Rhydin common.

2) What's something your character is very afraid of?
Fio ? Trust
Grace ? Marriage
Missie ? Monsters
Mireille ? Failure
Fionna ? Forgiveness

3) What very embarrassing thing would your character do for outlandish sums of money?
Fio ? More embarrassing than the world thinking you are crazy? Or having your heart and mind manifested in the chaos of the Eye, with others filtering through your memories like rag-pickers? She wouldn?t even understand the concept. The most embarrassing thing she has left would be someone seeing her feed. And she wouldn?t do that for a paying audience for any amount of money.
Grace ? Grace would be a little bolder to accept an offer like that, if they needed money. More likely, though, money wouldn?t do it. Substitute any important thing they couldn?t get any other way, and she?ll negotiate.
Missie ? Missie does many very embarrassing things every day for free. It?s fun!
Mireille ? Unless there were strategic or tactical advantage to it, and Grace was unavailable, nothing.
Fionna ? This is beyond her comprehension ? what could embarrass her?

4) What would you say is your character's best trait?(I changed this from ?worst? to ?best,? because I think we?ve already covered the negatives for them with the other questions in this meme, i.e. 1, 2, 3, 5, 14.)
Fio ? She never gives up, and she?s always willing to give that ?one more chance? every time, even though it usually turns out badly for her. She?s fiercely loyal; again, this doesn?t usually help her any. And she?s outrageously creative.
Grace ? She bold where Fio is passive. She doesn?t just accept things as they are, she tries to turn them to her advantage, or at least get a few swings of her own in. She?s also deeply relational. She ?gets? people more than the others do, though she masks it behind a cynical front.
Missie ? Missie is playful, adventurous and very optimistic and open. She loves people unconditionally, and she knows how to have great fun.
Mireille ? She?s consistent and disciplined.
Fionna ? She has a deep sense of conscience and personal responsibility for her actions. On the flip side of that coin, she tends not to blame others for their actions, even when she should.

5) What does your character dislike most about himself/herself?
Fio ? Her lack of control over her life: both her current condition and her very nature. The violence inherent in it and the danger it puts others in. Oh, and the ghosts. She?s seen them since she was a human child (generally speaking; not the current batch).
Grace ? Her inability to stop caring.
Missie ? Her lack of interesting pets, like chickens. Also, she wants a pair of red sneakers. And she can?t find her cowboy boots anywhere.
Mireille ? Her inability to account for all of the variables; her inability to protect herself and the children.
Fionna ? She is trapped inside her own guilt.

6) Open Paint and doodle your character.
Will have Missie do this later. In the meantime, enjoy this candid mental home video of Missie, age 5.

7) What sort of lover is your character?
Fio ? Gentle, generous, emotionally intimate, vulnerable.
Grace ? Unrestrained, adventurous, rather kinky.
Missie ? Ew! You weirdo! She is so totally yelling ?Stranger Danger?!
Mireille ? Hung up.
Fionna ? Isn't saying.

8 ) If your character had a computer, internet, and knew how to use them in theory, what would they do with it?
Fio ? Write music or work in computer graphics.
Grace ? Ha! We?ll let everyone use their imaginations. (Hint: the truth is probably closer to working in Quicken. But, you never know.)
Missie ? She really shouldn?t be left unattended.
Mireille ? Two words: computer chess.
Fionna ? Interesting question for which I am not sure I have a solid answer. Maybe start a blog.

9) What physical features are attractive to your character?
Fio ? Eyes. They?re the windows to the soul.
Grace ? Hands. A nice arse doesn?t hurt, either.
Missie ? She loves everyone, and if something is a little bit odd, she thinks it?s super cool because it?s special. And if it?s a little creepy ? even better!
Mireille ? She never thinks about that; she?s more interested in character.
Fionna ? Ditto.

10) Does your character like to read? If so, what do they like to read?
Fio ? Poetry, fiction, mythology, philosophy, biography, you name it. Rumi, always. She?s also heavily into Borges right now. Pablo Neruda. And she loves the simplicity of Chinese poetry, like this beautiful little four-liner, from Yuan Chen:
I cannot bear to put away
The bamboo sleeping mat:
That night I brought you home
I watched you roll it out.
Grace ? Novels, the more intricate the plots, the better. Mysteries and detective stories, romances, even a little biography.
Missie ? Picture and/or story books. Green Eggs and Ham is a favorite, currently. Depending on the day, she may or may not be able to read them herself, but she loves being read to better than almost anything. If she doesn?t have someone to do that, she?s perfectly happy to make up her own stories to go along with the pictures. They usually involve particularly gruesome ends for most of the characters, which she takes great delight in recounting to her dolls. In a recent Missie rendition of Goodnight, Moon, her friend, Sin, pops the red balloon before eating Granmere.
Mireille ? Military history, general history, philosophy, non-fiction, science.
Fionna ? The handwriting on the wall.

11) Describe an ordinary day for your character where nothing extraordinary happens.
If she?s slept, which is not a certainty, she gets up, showers. The day can vary, then, depending on who is driving. She probably will not eat, so she will exist in varying levels of discomfort. If she does, it is no longer an ordinary day.
Fio ? She might dress. She won?t particularly care what she puts on. Four hours of cello practice, minimum. Many hours of painting. She might read, she might think to go out and be sociable.
Grace ? She?ll dress, which she takes great care over, and apply some makeup, including her signature lipsticks. She?ll read, or go out and find something interesting to watch in the marketplace, or in the Inn. Smoke many packs of cloves. Kill many limes for her Gin and Tonics. Search for the perfectly clean glass.
Missie ? There are too many exciting things to do to list! Right now, she is trying to find the Bad Chicken. She might play with her pet that Sin gave her, named F.U. She might play by the riverbank, or in the market. She makes up stories for herself, in which all monsters who want to hurt little girls die in particularly graphic and violent ways. She tries to talk to people and make friends, but that doesn?t always work. She?ll stop in for some of Tara?s red pop at the inn.
Mireille ? If she is driving, which is rare, it is not an ordinary day.
Fionna ? Double dittoes.

12) Does your character want/have children? Boys, girls, both? How many?
She does. She has a daughter and twin sons. All presumed dead. In her most secret heart, she might want more, but it?s unlikely to ever happen for many reasons. She had a second daughter, who died at birth.

13) How much formal education does your character have?
In the alternate world of her origins, she had a tutor, rather than a formal education. She is fluent in several languages, plays violincello and the piano, can read and write, and has some basic math proficiencies. Sciences there were of a somewhat metaphysical nature; she is familiar with some basic concepts, but the hard sciences and rocket ships and whatnot found in Rhydin are bewildering to her, in every aspect of her personalities. She was also educated and graduated with a doctoral degree in the Art of Bow-Chicka-Wow from House Helston, with a minor in Wumpa-Wumpa.

14) What's one thing your character would like to be good at, but isn't?
Fio ? Dancing. She thinks she looks silly.
Grace ? Not giving a rat?s patootie.
Missie ? She wishes she could make music like Fio.
Mireille ? Relating.
Fionna ? Letting go of the past.

15) Your character is going to star in a movie! What's the title?
All ? The Many Faces of Fio
Missie ? Missie Gets a Chicken! The Musical!

1) What's something your character is horrible at?
Ali cannot sing to save his life. "Caterwauling" puts it mildly.

2) What's something your character is very afraid of?
Loss of personal control. Everyone else can fall apart, and that's fine, good for them. For him...no. Unguarded moments are bad juju. He is also having to deal with PTSD/dain bramage.

He?s allergic to beestings.

He can?t swim.

3) What very embarrassing thing would your character do for outlandish sums of money?
None of the above, not for any amount of money. See #2. He'll do embarrassing things to help other people, but that's not the same.

4) What would you say is your character's worst trait?
His tendency to secrecy. When in doubt, conceal, even if it doesn't help the situation at all.

5) What does your character dislike most about himself/herself?
Physically, his nose. Psychologically, he's having to come to terms with some aspects of his own past and behavior that he's not terribly proud of.

6) Open Paint and doodle your character.
Good Christ, no.

7) What sort of lover is your character?
Thorough. He always wants to know more, to find that next insight, to better understand. This applies to sex, too. His Bubasti nature comes into play in bed, as well; he's a hedonist, and he often likes it rough.

8 ) If your character had a computer, internet, and knew how to use them in theory, what would they do with it?
He has always had these things available to him--the wireframed glasses he carries around aren't to correct his eyesight. Computers and nets are tools to be used, so things like chatrooms and fun memes are mostly uninteresting to him. He kept an electronic diary for a while, but that's long gone now.

9) What physical features are attractive to your character?
He appreciates variation. Everything's fair game. That having been said, he tends to gravitate toward graceful women.

10) Does your character like to read? If so, what do they like to read?
He's a bibliophile. His hunger for knowledge leads him to read everything from Proust to the sides of cereal boxes.

11) Describe an ordinary day for your character where nothing extraordinary happens.
He wakes up at dawn or a little before, goes running. Showers, eats, reads, eats again. Violin time. Then maybe a little eating. Afternoons are for exploration of various sorts, then dinner. Then dessert. He spends the nights with his friends, and wacky hijinx usually ensue. Yoga and a wee snack comes before bed, sometime after midnight.

12) Does your character want/have children? Boys, girls, both? How many?
Ali has twenty or thirty caracal descendants, but no human children. He desperately wants them, as many as possible, gender unimportant.

13) How much formal education does your character have?
Ali has a bachelor's degree in history, emphasis on military history of the postcolonial period from 1950-2200, from the Oxford University of his Earth.

14) What's one thing your character would like to be good at, but isn't?
Lying. He's good at secrecy, but he's a terrible liar if he's called out on the spot to make something up.

15) Your character is going to star in a movie! What's the title?
A Fistful of Vampires: The Spaghetti Western After Dark.

NPC Antagonist(s)


The Society of Leopold

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e281/Evil-Chao/SOClogopng.png


In Rhy'din, for every dozen "clandestine" organizations that everyone seemed to know about (the who's, what's, why's), there were always one or two that managed to slip between the cracks and ride the undercurrent of the mundane to accomplish the goals set before them.

The Society of Leopold was one such entity.

A splintered faction from a religious cult of the same name (on multiple Earths), the Society in Rhy'din has spent years preying upon the darker element of Rhy'din. From vampires, to demons, to some of the other predatory monstrosities, the men/women of the order have
cultivated the skill of the killing and capture said creatures with funded aid of unknown benefactors. While the uses of the captured have never been revealed to the 'frontline' members of the cult, the bulk of the membership shows to reservations about the collateral damage of the deaths of 'innocent bystanders'. To them, the ends justify the means.

One small coven of vampires? A demon? Well, it's worth the loss of dozens of human lives.

They are the faceless tide of humanity in Rhy'din, blending in effortlessly with the rest of the mundane, unspecial people who flourish in the realm on a daily basis.

Your grocer...

Your CPA...

The pretty little thing at behind the counter at the pharmacy who just winked at you...

Their numbers are unknown and their resources unfathomable. Their goal, if they themselves are a known quantity to some, seems so simple.

But is it?