Manjunatha "Manju" Das
From Changeling Venue
| Seeming | Fairest Flowering |
|---|---|
| Court | Spring Court •••• |
| Freehold | The Diamond Path |
| Player | Alex Adragna |
Contents |
Overview
Alias(es): Manju
Real Name: Manjunatha Das
Age: 27
Concept: The concept is based on the Gandharva from Hindu/Buddhist mythology. Gandharvas are air spirits who served as the musicians for the Gods. They are described as having either avian or horse features or alternatively being extremely attractive, if slightly effeminate. Gandharvas can fly through the air, and are known for their skill as musicians
They are connected with trees and flowers, and are described as dwelling in the scents of bark, sap, and blossom
Physical description: Manjunatha Das is a strikingly attractive young man in his mid 20s. His skin is the rich tone of cinnamon and his raven hair hangs in a cunningly well planned “careless” cut. His dark eyes sparkle mischievously from beneath his dark brows.
Relevant Mechanics: Striking Looks 4, Spring Mantle 4 (Pending)
Character Livejournal: Some stories may appear in shadechronicles
Character Information
Manju and his twin sister Lalita (an Asparas Fairest Dancer in her Changeling seeming) are the sales director and managing editor of the magazine DCXS Magazine. He spends his nights enjoying the excess and pleasures society's elite have to offer while plying potential clients with all manner of entertainments, illicit and otherwise to curry favor.
Among the Lost, Manju works to help newly escaped Lost find a place in society above the gutter. He will arrange rumors and social connections among the cultural and financial elite to help newcomers establish a higher standard of living. Along with this he will help fabricate needed work histories at the magazine to give them a leg up as they seek real employment.
Known History
Basic Timeline: Manju and Lita appeared from the Hedge some seven years ago and worked their way to positions of influence within the mortal populous posing as well educated immigrants from India.
Current Activities: Currently Manju plays the part of a millionare Bollywood Playboy.
Merit Details: Status 5: High Society
Background: At the age of five Manju and his sister were playing in the garden behind their home outside of New Delhi, India. There, they were approached by a beautiful woman, as far as he could tell, wearing the traditional clothing of a long gone era. Although such dress is not rare among modern Hindus, her garments were elaborately embroidered and bejeweled but as light and sheer as silk.
Her voice was surprisingly husky yet musical and she moved with a fluid mercurial grace. She asked in her rich ringing tones if the two would like to come play in her garden, which was just beyond the hedge at the end of the path
Looking up from the ants that had scattered from the broken anthill they had been poking with sticks, the twins looked at each other and consulted in the silent language only twins can share.
Soon they nodded; after all, no other adult let them wander beyond the boarders of the family's small enclosed home and gardens
They reached their hands up to hers and walked along with the woman who called herself Uvashi. She smiled down on them and they were off walking a winding path they had never seen through the garden hedge
So began a two decade captivity in the Fae Realm
Faerie:
Time passed strangely for the twins as they aged to young adulthood, and then no further. Slowly they stopped asking when they could return home, instead becoming absorbed into the life of the Pleasure Gardens of the strange and fickle creatures who had effortlessly become their masters
Perhaps it was the rich colors or the constant music, perhaps the endless and exotic feasts, or maybe the consuming games of skill and politics or later the less wholesome games of pleasure and mastery, but the twins lost touch with what they had been and became something entirely different
Manju was painstakingly, and at times painfully, trained in the skills of the Gandharvas: music, the arts and of course serving the noble Others' every whim. He was trained in the skills of Kama; from the 64 skills to the more subtle and political arts.
His only constant companion was his ever present sibling. The two were closer than even normal twins. She became the only living being with whom he could share the few precious memories of life “before.” Together they kept those scraps of life alive for one another, soon remembering more of their shared conversations than the reality they had left behind
Escape:
One day, what seemed like an endless age after their capture, the twins saw a familiar face on the new bureau of the room they shared. The eyes of their old governess glittered sadly out of the wood and spoke with a creaky voice to them
She told them of how they had been missed by her and it had been only a handful of years since their disappearance, not the vast expanse of time they had imagined. The old woman/furniture explained how she had sensed the difference in the things left in their place and gone searching for them after a time. She had stumbled upon the strange hidden path and made her way to the land of the Others. She explained she was captured, and punished for her arrogance in trying to save them by being condemned to serve in her new form
The old woman was cunning, she had remembered the way back to the hedge, but could not return on her now short and stiff legs. She told them how to return before it was too late.
And so the Twins returned through the hedge, creeping over their Keepers wall in the dead of night
Perhaps the old Governess had herself been gone longer than she thought, or maybe it was something darker. When they returned trough the hedge, a suspiciously easy journey, the twins found the world had moved on without them
The once immaculate garden had become overgrown and choked with weeds. The small anthill now dominated a whole corner of their former playground, towering over them. Their parents were long gone and they soon learned from neighbors that they themselves had left for America, taking the family fortune to start some sort of computer business there
Using their new found freedom and the powers and skills left to them by their former Keeper the twins arranged passage to America to begin a new life, and to take their eventual revenge for the theft of their lives
Motley
Name Pending
Allies
Aaron (Swapped information on identity help for recently escaped Lost)
Bianca Snow (Always up for ruining the competition.)
C.J. (Business associate, pairing high-class clientelle with back alley thrills)
Charlie "Kia" Case (Pending)
Elizabeth Ann Sexton (Adopted 'Niece')
Evie Greene (Contact for the most potent special entertainment enhancers)
Gaea (Have been seen about town once or twice together)
Gryphon (Seen regularly together in social circles)
Joey Shears (Socializes with the Morning, has a standing VIP pass for his tours)
Lalita Das (Twin Sister)
Laurel Thorn (Everyone needs a gossip partner)
Ruby Kirkbride (Business associate, trading identities for artifacts)
Stephan Glamourdust (Social companion)
Tommy Blue (Business associate)
Virginia Wolfe (Pending)
Enemies
Character Inspirations
Imagery
Kama Sutra (the book, the movie and the soundtrack)
On Life
To days of inspiration, playing hookey, making something out of nothing, the need to express, to communicate. To going against the grain, going insane, going mad. To loving tension, no pension, to more than one dimension, to starving for attention, hating convention, hating pretension, not to mention, of course, hating dear old Mom and Dad. To riding your bike midday past the three-piece suits. To fruits, to no absolutes, to "Absolut." To choice, to the "Village Voice," to any passing fad. To being an "Us" for once, instead of a "Them." La vie BohËme.
-from RENT
There's Only Us, There's Only This, Forget Regret, Or Life Is Yours To Miss, No Other Road, No Other Way, No Day But Today
-from RENT
On the Spring Court
"Those who restrain their desires, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained."
-William Blake
"Were there no desire there would be no virtue, and because one man desires what another does not, who shall say whether the child of his desire be Vice or Virtue?"
-Edgar Rice Burroghs
"Man is the only animal whose desires increase as they are fed; the only animal that is never satisfied."
-Henry George
On Money
"Never lose sight of the fact that all human felicity lies in man's imagination, and that he cannot think to attain it unless he heeds all his caprices. The most fortunate of persons is he who has the most means to satisfy his vagaries."
-Marquis de Sade
Soundtrack
Quotes
"We can all use a bit of help when we're down my dear; it's nothing." - Manju
"What's wrong with letting a man order your drinks for you? Manju remembers how to treat a lady." - Gaea
Rumors
-Manju and his sister Lalita Das are unnaturally attached to each other.
-Manju is an ineffective business man, he has made his way by looks and social talent alone.
-Manju is obsessed with his own beauty, to the point that he will burn an outfit if on that day it doesn't look good on him.
-Manju has a raging coke habit.
