Caledonia
From Changeling Venue
| Seeming | Fairest Flowering |
|---|---|
| Court | Autumn Court ••• |
| Freehold | None |
| Player | Michelle Webb |
Contents |
Overview
Alias(es): Adalgisa, Calista, Demetria
Real Name: Teresa Connor
Age: 30
Physical description: Tall and striking, Caledonia gets noticed when she enters a room. Despite this, there is something decidedly disconcerting about her countenance and her proximity can be intoxicating and terrifying. Perhaps it is the dark black pits of her eyes that linger just a little too long on you. Perhaps it is the scent of fall flowers touched with a hint of the cold chill of wind that offers the hope of desire tinged with the dangers of the cold dark night. Caledonia is as presence as much as she is a person. Her hair is the warm red of the autumn leaves which contrasts with her pale complexion, adding to her striking countenance. Her voice is smooth, a bit deep and husky and inviting.
IC Organizations
Mammetum Entertainment, L.L.C.
Character Information
Known History
Basic Timeline:
- 1964 - Born on July 4th during the 4th of July Festival in Granville Ohio.
- 1978 - Abducted by a member of the Gentry from the Platte County Fair in Columbus, Nebraska
- 2002 - Escaped from Hedge, broken and confused. Convinced the year must be 2078 based upon the scarred hashmarks on her abdomen. Taken in by Francis Hudson to reacclimate to normal life.
- 2007 - Traveling with members of her motley, Hannibal and Francis Hudson to learn more about the trials and tribulations of leadership and management of a freehold.
Current Activities:
Caledonia has been working with her Motley, the Sweeps, to reinvent herself into this new world with other Changelings outside of her few friends and allies. She is moving from town to town, looking for a place to hang her hat.
Merit Details:
Background: "Another year, another scar, another reminder of how long I have been in service to that bastard..."
Caledonia was born to carny parents and lived a reasonably uneventful life. Spending many months on the road, she was "homeschooled" before there really was such a thing. As such, she did not receive any real formal education and didn't have any life as a child. From the time she could remember she was working the carnival in some way, even if it was only picking up trash or helping a booth vendor with their game. At the age of 14, she was blossoming into a young woman. The carny owners often dressed her up to look older than she was and sent her out to drum up business outside of bars or construction sites. While not classically beautiful, she had some sort of something that drew the eye of a rube hoping for a glimpse of leg or more, but winding up losing their money to the midway.
If asked, she has no idea why he took her and what his plans were. Perhaps she said something that caught his eye or even the way the light hit her at one moment or another. He never said. Shortly after her abduction, her captor intermittently lost interest in her. Some years he would beat her senseless or send her to work in the basements of his vast estate, shoveling coal in the enormous boilers or worse. Some years would blur under the influence of drugs and other experiments. Other years she would be his star pupil and research assistance and the apple of his eye, allowing her to serve him in his personal quarters and at his most prestigious banquets.
For many years, Caledonia worked tirelessly to gain the favor and the kind side of his ever changing personality. Each time Caledonia succeeded in her goal, his wrath and abuse when she displeased him in some unknown way was all the more horrendous.
Left alone in the dark in the dank basement of his manse in the 75th year of her service to him, she began to concoct a plan for escape.
For the next 15 years, she gathered resources here and there. A bit of copper here, a scrap of fabric there. Often, she would clean the rooms of the guests after they left, scouring the trash to find something useful, something of value to use to bribe the right people and grease the right palms to assist in her escape. 10 years later, she was ready.
Her escape couldn't have gone more wrong. Her and her fellow escapees were captured while wandering lost in the Hedge by Goblins. The bribes she had paid had failed her and her companions. Shoved onto a slaving ship, she was subjected to horrors she has until recently could only speak of in pained whispers. Her last memories before sliding into a dark sleep was that of foul, stinking Goblin slavers hovering over her, the look of men who had not seen companionship for some time. The rest, blissfully is still shrouded in the darkness of her mind. Her dreams are filled with the feel of rough wood on her skin, the painful to and fro of a cart and many muffled voices, then darkness again.
Finding a new life back in the world was tough for a girl with a whole lot of random skills and very little actual education. She worked odd jobs cleaning houses until she could readjust to life on the other side of the hedge. Once settled into life on the other side, she spent her nights reading every obscure text found in the darkest and oldest corners of the libraries. What strange skills Caledonia searches for only few understand, but the predilections of court suggest she is amassing the tools to protect her and her charges in any way from the Gentry. Her good times with "him" were spent either being the subject of or the assistant for his experiments with magics and various concoctions. When prodded, she will answer that her work in these dusty old books will help save us one day, but for now, she prepares and test her theories.
True to her court, Caledonia is very much focused on reminding her fellow brethren through the vehicle of fear to continue to be vigilant in their care to watch for any signs of the gentry.
While many Changelings have talents, Caledonia has skills. She does not sing or dance overly well. She does not sell craft items that others may wish to purchase. To many who are interested in entertaining others or selling their wares, she has nothing to provide them.
She is an entertainer of sorts though. Her years on the midway have taught her how to put on a show. She has a knack for finding the right people to connect to the right opportunities and many have employed her services to help develop their budding careers in some business or another or getting them access to the right person to give them their "big break". When it comes to greasing palms and clearing the path and saying just the right thing to seal the deal, there are few that can match Caledonia. When asked how she does it, she simply chuckles and quotes P.T. Barnum, "There's a sucker born every minute."
Despite her lack of any specific job skill, Caledonia has the charisma and charm to smooth over any dips in her abilities. Within her Motley, she is often the negotiator and leader in working or negotiating work with other Motleys. Rumors abound that if given the right area, she would likely rise to the rank of Autumn Queen. Regardless of her charms, her wile and cunning are valued by those on her side and feared by those who oppose her. She is, in many ways, the epitome of her court and is feared by those who risk the safety of the Lost.
Caledonia is known for preparing and planning excellent and entertaining Autumn Fairs.
Motley
The Sweeps
Hannibal
Francis Hudson
Allies
Enemies
- Gentry - Vertröstung
Character Inspirations
Aunty Entity - Mad Max, Beyond Thunderdome
Soundtrack
Quotes
"Do you know who I was? Nobody. Except on the day after, I was still alive. This nobody had a chance to be somebody." - Aunty Entity, Mad Max - Beyond Thunderdome
"A dame that knows the ropes isn't likely to get tied up" - Mae West
“Those who really desire to attain an independence, have only set their minds upon it, and adopt the proper means, as they do in regard to any other object which they wish to accomplish, and the thing is easily done.” - P.T. Barnum
“Without promotion something terrible happens... Nothing!” - P.T. Barnum
"What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flair for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it is not enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose." - Margaret Thatcher
"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." - Frank Herbert, Dune - Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear
"I have almost forgot the taste of fears. The time has been my senses would have cool'd to hear a night shriek, and my fell of hair would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir as life were in't. I have supp'd full with horrors; direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, cannot once start me." - Will - Macbeth
OOC Information
- Player Name - Michelle Webb
- Cam Number - US2002020196
- Email Address - greebotrill@gmail.com
- Possible Links - Flexible
