Cecilia Norelle

[Guest Shilane]

Name

Cecilia Norelle

 

Pic

 

OOC History

Originally she was created for the comic anthology/graphic novel, Dystopia Kids as the working title, that my studio group was working on but we couldn't bring ourselves to sit down and draw it all out. It just got too complicated trying to create the universe and tying up all our loose ends. The project is on hold until January when we'll hopefully have less soul crushing class schedules and people will stop moving to Seattle at random. She needed some fleshing out anyway...

 

Personality

Ceci isn't really mean, just easily annoyed and very vocal when she is. She actually has a great deal of patience considering she goes from neutral to annoyed in under a second given the right string of words, but has never chewed anyone out that didn't really deserve it. It's not about how long it takes her to get annoyed; it's about how long it takes her to get angry. Ceci rarely actually gets angry, or even frustrated. Mostly, she's an insane perfectionist and extremely hard on herself but not others and does her best to be fair. She's a bit of a snob when it comes to her areas of interest. She's been called uptight and a stickler for rules, but can loosen up given time. Ceci is the Queen of Sarcasmos and a big fan of inventing creative insults and threats but she really can't take criticisms or any kind of heat and a lot of off-hand comments get under her skin. She embarrasses very easily for someone who doesn't mind telling people everything about herself. Secretly, she's a sweetheart and puts a little extra love into all of her cakes. Secretly, she's very lonely and wants to fall madly in love with someone. Secretly, she cries all the time in private.

 

Fictional Character Biography

Near the beach on the south side of the island is a very nice house that's all whites and blues and glass. It has a great view that peeks at the ocean from behind a pool and slide and a massive garden. It's nestled between a few lime trees and a well-loved pomegranate tree. From the street, it looks perfect with its white irises and immaculate lawn. This is where Ceci grew up with her two sisters, brother and parents. It was a miserable life. Tycan, the eldest, left when he was eighteen, nose bloodied and carrying a sobbing fourteen year old Cecilia. They left behind a seventeen year old Nestelle and a six year old Sara, the favourites. They would always bitterly miss Sara and regret being unable to take her with them. They also left behind a very drunk Maren Norelle, their father. Their mother was only six months dead and Alvira, also known as That Bitch, had been only three hours moved in.

 

For the next ten years, Ceci and her brother would live with their great-uncle Lyndsay, a famed baker, and life would be good. Ceci would drop out of school but nurture an immense love and talent for cooking, particularly baking, and study obsessively about biology and folklore. Tycan would go on to college overseas and return during the holidays with presents, stories and a sense of joy about him that Ceci had never seen when they lived with their father. One day, he would return with a girl named Navutrise when Ceci was seventeen. When she saw them together, she felt as if he was alive for the first time and she was happy for him, if terribly jealous. Tycan would get his Ph.D in Comparative World Literature and return to the island to marry Navutrise and live happily ever after as a teacher with a beautiful cottage home and a son on the way. And Ceci would be happy for him, if a bit lonely on movie night.

 

When Ceci was twenty-four, she would be alone for the very first time. Uncle Lyndsay would die in his sleep at the age of eighty-seven when the cancer that he'd battled for four years would finally take him. She saw her sisters for the first time in years at the funeral. Her father had declined to attend. Nestelle would look beautiful and proud and perfect in her black pant suit, severe even for a lawyer. Sara would look like a ghost of her former self. The once treasured princess was a doll smeared with make-up to hide the bruises that Ceci could see by the way Sara moved. Looking at her sister, who still had her mother's fey green eyes, Ceci wept more for her than her uncle's passing. After the service, Sara would be swept away by her beautiful guardian who never once acknowledged Tycan or Cecilia's presence. Tycan offered to have Ceci live with him and his family but she shook her head, hugged him and drove back to the loft apartment that had been the only real home she'd ever had. She then cried herself senseless for the better part of two hours. In the morning, she would wake up feeling empty but strangely refreshed.

 

And so, Cecilia came to be a baker, particularly a wedding cake maker. Her uncle bequeathed to her the loft, just enough money for her to pay off the mortgage, and the bakery. She would eventually hire two regular guys, Tristan and Nathaniel, to help keep the place tidy and run the store. She'd then hire a somewhat silly girl named Jessica to take care of the front end and adopt Tristan as her pet, confidant and assistant in the kitchen. Nevermind that he was a full foot taller than her and twenty seven, she topped him. She got a cat to help ease her growing loneliness and then another to ease his during the day when she was at the bakery. Ceci would end up spending Thursdays at Tycan's to see her nephew and help a very pregnant Navutrise, make them dinner and they would all enjoy a movie before bed. Life would be simple and sweet again and she would be happy. If a bit lonely.

 

The Quick & Dirty Description

Ceci is a twenty-four year old baker, with blue eyes and blonde hair that she dyes red, approximately five foot, three inches, and two cavities. She makes wedding cakes, coffee cake, cupcakes and all manner of sweets and pastries for sale in her bakery, Sweetcake. She has Type Two Diabetes that persists even though she does her very best to use up all the sugar that ends up in her blood with exercise and keep her intake low. And she's a empath.

 

Powers and Abilities

Empathic powers and some vague form of clairvoyance. Having no formal training or ever having tried to hone her powers, Ceci doesn't even really know what to make of her ability to know what people want better than they do. The clairvoyance generally scares her and makes her a bit timid about people touching her. It's generally very subtle and her uncle and brother always encouraged her to use her "intuition" to help her when she was cooking. So far that's gone very well for her.

 

Parkour/free running. A bit wild by nature and in need of an exercise routine that didn't force her to do laps, Cecilia ventured into amateur parkour and has had relative success. She was once a gymnast and she finds it very rewarding when she manages to overcome a new obstacle map planned for her by Tycan. She's trying to get Tristan to try it.

 

Self defense. For one reason or another--we'll assume besides her father's preference to vent his frustration by beating his daughter silly--Tycan thought it was very important that Ceci be able to at least get away from would-be attackers. She knows SING, a few good judo throws and is very capable of utterly destroying a man's knee with a very sneaky and mean jui jitsu move. But she's no Jackie Chan.

 

Equipment

Pepper spray keychain... Tycan thinks it's a great idea. Ceci also wears a locket under her shirt that has Marcus', her nephew, picture in it. She has another that holds her mother's picture and Tycan's but she doesn't wear it except when she's feeling particularly in need of it. She truly believes they're amulets that help protect her and give her luck.

[treacherous]

Another Artist!! (and a good one too) Hellz Yeah!

 

Now moving on to review--First off, in my time in the FPL I've known no females. It's good to see a female writer (I'm assuming by the style of writing). Second, this character gets back to what the FPL is really supposed to be about and that is creative concept writing. The character isn't any macho, super hero type and she is not plotting world domination. She is just a girl trying to get by. A very character driven type. Much like ThePoets characters. It will be interesting to see her interaction in this new Khazan. A character that might not be involved (slugging it out) with other heroes/villains, yet will be in the picture or she may transition into a great heroine/villain herself. A lot of possibility and she has plenty of background to justify any direction you take her.

 

With that said, it is clearly written. No horrible flaws from me (but others may eat into it, plus I don't see myself as one to judge). I would like to know more about the clairvoyant aspect of her. It seems like this was just kind of thrown into it like "Oh yeah and she's clairvoyant." rather than a real part of her life. I would like to see a little background on how this effected her or changed her. That's just me though and my opinion matters little. Altogether, I hope you become involved. It's great to see a different side.

[Guest Shilane]

B'aww, thank you. I think the girl part is fairly obvious. ~points at the avatard~

 

On Ceci's powers:

The empathic powers and clairvoyance tend to be linked in that intense emotions most often bring on her "visions". She tends to see the past more than the future. As an empath, she's able to taste a person's emotions more like flavours rather than having them projected on to her or seeing them as an aura. Typically, each person will have a unique blend of flavours depending on their mood since people rarely only feel one thing and the emotions they're projecting will only partially mask what they're really feeling. Generally when a vision has been instigated by someone's emotions, she'll see something that has to do with that emotion from their past, although not necessarily what has caused the emotion at the present. Her own mood will also sometimes cause her to see visions and it causes her to isolate herself when she's feeling extremely angry or depressed, particularly if she's dealing with her childhood trauma. To a small degree, she seems to be able to project her emotions on to other sensitive people. She hasn't noticed this very much but she seems to be able to channel into Tristan and Marcus. Mostly likely this is because Tristan is around her near constantly and Marcus is only a baby.

 

She very rarely is able to read objects and non-sentient things, like plants. Higher life form animals she can read, so she's very in tune with her cats and Tristan's dog. Babies are the easiest to read as they're very simple and haven't got many complicated emotions yet. The more complicated the person and the emotion, the harder it is for her to actually figure out what she's sensing. Particularly intense emotions will leave a sort of aftertaste that will taint her sense for a short time. Touch is required for her to have a vision but not for her to read emotions. Skin to skin contact is not required although it tends to enhance things. Her abilities differ from telepathy in that she doesn't gain them mind to mind. Her visions are more like split second flashes of stills. She's grown fairly accustomed to having the visions but the content will often catch her off-guard. She typically does not have clairaudient abilities although extreme cases will sometimes escalate into a fully immersed experiences for her. This has only happened twice so far.

 

Ceci's experiences with her powers ranges from exceedingly useful to traumatizing. The empathic powers have helped to make her extremely successful at cooking as the emotional flavours help guide her as often as her actual talent. She considers herself an artist in regards to food and feels like her ability to literally know what they want has helped her please her customers in a way she couldn't have without it. In regards to her childhood, her father's intense rage, despise of women, sadism and desire for her sister, Nestelle, made her incredibly timid and sometimes physically ill from her anxiety and fear. It has irreversibly damaged her and made her very wary of anger and lust as she often saw those emotions turn to violence. She is very not okay with people touching her without her permission and it is a standing rule that she isn't to be touched casually unless she initiates contact. She will visibly flinch if someone reaches for her and has been known to have panic attacks if someone startles her with a touch. On the other hand, she is able to read those close to her and care for her and feel safe and loved which has been more therapeutic than anything she could have paid for. Doesn't fully understand her powers or even necessarily consider herself to a psychic and does her best to not over analyze what it is.

 

Emooo....!

[treacherous]

I think the girl part is fairly obvious. ~points at the avatar~

 

You can never be too sure these days. ~points at MollyHayes~

[Guest Shilane]

This sounds like every MMO ever... I've had fake girls flirt with me on WoW... that's nice and awkward.

[Guest ThePoet]

Treacherous felt compelled to use my name during his review, so I decided to descend from my lofty cloud(dingy office building) and give you some comments.

 

-Treach's comment about character similairity with the bulk of mine was dead on. Your character is believable. No huge bells and whistles.

 

-I like the storytelling style with the use of the word "would". It actually gives a sense of the empathy power that you revealed later on.

 

-I like the irony in the storytelling style and the character herself. I don't know if you intended to do it, but the tone comes off as emotionally distant, yet Ceci herself is very emotional and an empath. Very clever there.

 

-Depending on the actual character creating engine that will be set up soon, you may have to tweek things a bit. Just a fair warning.

 

-If you like this character, I recommend creating several characters in the same universe. They don't have to be related, but the universe creates an excellent backdrop for future stories. I actually had six characters(1 was dead) in one world that all touched on each other and I really think the sum was greater than the parts.

 

-Overall fairly good. You're not a newbie to the creative writing game, but you're new around here. Especially without the former Hall of Fame for reference, good job.

 

-ThePoet

 

P.S. sorry about the flirting on WoW, I was just screwing around.

[Guest Shilane]

! I'm honoured!

 

Hmm, the storytelling style is mostly unintentional. I've been watching a lot of Pushing Daisies lately and if you've seen it, you'll know what I mean about the narrator's voice and his manner of speech. In my head, it's similar to that. Or I suppose the narrator from Winne the Pooh. I feel extra special for unintentionally doing cool things. I must be magical. I do feel like I do some of it as a sort instinct to resist putting too much of my own voice into the narrating though since when Ceci speaks, she will have a lot of my personal snark and over-emotional streak. So it'd be overwhelming or boring if all of it was sarcastic and high emotions all the time. The narrator is very matter-of-fact versus Ceci, and most of the other characters around her, who will use a lot of hyperbole and sarcasm.

 

For now, I think I can only have one character but I have plans to develop Tristan and Tycan and maybe-maybe one of the sisters, preferably Nestelle. Also, I'm already asking permission to pick up the other characters from the project that Ceci is originally from since they are all tangentially connected even though their stories are ultimately separate. So we'll see! Gotta get this girl in love with someone before I think about bring in other major players.

 

PS: No, I will not give you gold or a raid spot if you show me your pics.

[Guest ThreeDark]

Okay, so, I really don't have any nitpicking to do.

 

Ceci is a perfect example of a street level character.

 

I love the style you wrote her background in. I ADORE the "And she's an empath." Just like that. It's important, but it isn't. It fits. She's a normal person, but she isn't. Voila.

 

Also: GEARS!