fairestofall

Name: Madeline Keyes

Age: 24

Gender: Female

Type: Aspect

Appearance:

Madeline is a slip of a woman standing a a little over five feet. She has very vivid, gray-blue eyes and long, wavy light blond hair. Madeline is someone who loves color and wears whatever she thinks is comfortable. A kind of arty, ‘bohemian’ sort of look, she likes things that are interesting and pop. It comes together for someone who isn’t hard to spot. In the workplace she wears more conservative clothes but always carries herself with an air of grace and dignity.

Personality:

Madeline comes off as self-confident and take charge and for the most part she is. She is someone fun and charming and tries to live life to the fullest. She has a selfish streak that comes from a hard life and not having much. At the end of the day, you really only have yourself. It doesn’t mean she doesn’t care about her friends. Not by a long shot. She’d do anything for her ‘inner circle’, she just tends to look out for herself first.

Despite the selfish streak, Madeline is optimistic to almost a fault. She's the friend who tells you to always look on the bright side, that things will be okay. To forgive and move on. It's a holdover from being raised by nuns and Madeline isn't quite sure if she genuinely believes it, or if she's just trying to make up for being a selfish person.

Some of Madeline’s bravado stems from fear. She’s made it this long without things going too wrong and she hasn’t had to turn pro yet. It’s a way to protect herself. It’s a man’s world and she’s just a single girl who has to look out for herself. If she believes that she’s someone not to mess with, hopefully people will avoid messing with her.

Sexuality:

Straight

Constants:

Lips As Red As Blood, Skin as White as Snow...

Green Is Not a Good Color: Everyone has jealousy in some degree or another. Some are better at handling it than others. Around Madeline though, that control weakens. People don’t necessarily become jealous of her (although it happens), but the feelings are brought up. To what degree depends on the person. Someone with insecurities would be more affected than someone who is confident in themselves.

The Fairest of Them All: It’s pretty much a fact that beautiful people tend to have an easier time in life, no matter what. Madeline isn’t an exception to this fact. People of more shallow dispositions can be ‘enchanted’ by her, those looking at deeper connections are appreciative of Madeline’s honesty. She tends to draw people, especially men, in with the fact that she doesn’t realize her attractiveness. Either way it’s looked at, people are more inclined to give a helping hand or a needed tip if she’s looking for it.

Mirror, Mirror: People tend to feel their faults around Madeline. She is far from perfect but others find that their shortcomings feel more obvious in her presence. This can lead to people needing to ‘confess’ to her, to improve themselves, avoiding her, etc.

City History:

Madeline was found on the footsteps of the Eidolon City Orphanage when she was a toddler with just a letter that stated her name and how old she was. No one knows who her family was, but given her age, the theory was that her parents were no longer able to care for her and left her there. Madeline’s memory of the orphanage isn’t complete. Although she spent almost ten years there, there are some glaring gaps that she doesn’t want to probe too much. At age ten, Madeline was lucky enough to be adopted by an older couple who had lost their two children to sickness a few years prior.

Growing up with the Keyes family was normal. They were a lower, middle class family. Gregory Keyes was a dock worker for the Ravenwood family and Clara Keyes was a housewife who suffered from the inability to do much more than socialize with friends and was all around ‘flighty’. Gregory passed in a bus accident when Madeline was fourteen and while the money given to the family from the steel mill was enough to hold them out for a period of time, it certainly wasn’t enough to live off of for years. Clara attempted to get a job but couldn’t hold any position down and after several months of this, a fourteen year old Madeline was forced to drop out of school and get a job waitressing to keep them afloat. It was enough to scrape by but still would not sustain them for long.

In her spare time, Madeline started selling her paintings on weekends to bring in an extra bit of cash for herself to store away in case of emergencies. The artists community of Little Haven was a pot of characters that gave Madeline a wide-range of subjects to paint about. This brought a lucrative little business that let her buy better art supplies and work on developing her own savings.

Having made enough money to strike out on her own, Madeline moved out of the house (it was facing foreclosure and Clara had shacked up with a bar tender at one of the high end restaurants) and into her own small apartment in The Sprawl. It wasn’t where she wanted to end up, but Madeline was patient. Better things would come, she was sure of it.

Tired of working as a poorly tipped, over worked waitress, Madeline left the little diner by the docks and went looking for new work. She had enough money for the mean time that she could be pickier and snagged employment at the Sea and Sky Art Gallery working for Shoshannah Hagel. The two hit it off and Madeline likes to think of herself as an asset to the business, especially considering that sometimes? Shoshannah’s narcolepsy kicks in and she has to step up to the plate to make sure things go okay.

The art forgery business was a total accident. Madeline was doing inventory on new paintings and accidental damaged one of them. The show was in three nights and no way she could tell the artist that one of his paintings was destroyed beyond repair. So she took it home, got her supplies, and copied it. Lucky for her, it was a pretty straightforward ‘shot of life’ piece and when all was said and done and Madeline’s copy was hanging up in the gallery for the opening, she had done a pretty damn good job. No one knew that it wasn’t the original. That painting sold for a lot of money that night. More than Madeline made in a month, that was for sure. It got the wheels turning in her head. She felt uncomfortable copying the art work of someone who was struggling in life just as much as she was. It would be different if it was some snobby rich boy who thought his squiggles were works of art. Or, even better: If the painter was no longer around. The hypocrisy of it aside (because, after all, every painter cared about their pieces), it started Madeline down a line of thinking.

She could make a lot of money doing copies. ‘Forging’ didn’t cross her mind, but reproductions? With the war overseas surely destroying priceless works, people would want to get their hands on something that they could pretend was the real thing. As of now, Madeline isn’t selling anything. She’s still looking over things and practicing, but it’s certainly in the cards.

Special Skills and Abilities:

Artistic: Madeline is a quick draw. She has the quintessential artist’s eye. Her talent with paint, pencil, and other drawing materials is truly a gift.

Weaknesses:

Hearing Problems: Madeline has very little hearing ability in her left ear from a poorly healed ear drum that was blown during the firefight. She can hear a little bit, but can legally be considered deaf in that ear.

Unhealthy: Madeline doesn’t sleep well and never really has. While it’s been great for painting and getting work done, it’s draining on her body and she has been known to sneak a nap under her desk at work when she thinks no one is going to notice. It seemed to start from the nightmares she’s had that started shortly after she was adopted. She’s never been able to remember them but they would leave her so shaken that some nights she just didn’t want to go to sleep and that ended up building on itself. It’s taken a toll on her health. She’s not a big eater to begin with so coupled with a poorly ventilated apartment full of paint, she ends up wearing herself down to where she gets sick pretty often.

Unattached: She’s a single woman living on her own in a city where if you’ve got a weakness, someone’s going to try exploit it. No one’s waiting for her at home, who’ll notice that she’s gone until she she doesn’t show up for work the next day and even then, it would probably be too late. Although not many break-ins happen in her building (those who live there most of the time can barely afford it to begin with), other stuff does in the area.

Big Mouth: Madeline has a tendency to be one of those people that can talk. She’s not saying she’s going to kick someone’s ass then running, but she pushes buttons, especially if she’s ticked off or trying to prove a point. Sometimes it’s to one up the next person or a battle of wills. And then that battle of wills turns into the other guy losing his temper and...

Not a Fighter: Madeline can’t exactly defend herself. She knows how to punch and kick and scratch, but that’s kind of the limit to her self defense. Sure if she can find some conveniently placed block of wood or a frying pan to defend herself against one guy, she’s not too afraid to do that, but two guys? Someone with a weapon? She’s as helpless as the next average joe.

Wavering Morals: Madeline’s someone who has tried to always do the right thing in life. Don’t cheat, don’t steal, and if you do, ask for forgiveness at least. Now though she’s starting to find that the moral compass isn’t pointing so close to north anymore. The rules seem to be able to bend just a little further. While she’d never steal from a friend or her place of work, survival in Eidolon City is difficult and she’s dabbling into selling forgeries. That’s not very straight and narrow and Madeline thinks she kind of might like thinking of life that way. More gray tends to make life interesting.

Strengths:

Loyal: Madeline is someone who’ll stand by her friends in the end. Sure there might be arguments. Someone might do something stupid and feelings will be hurt, but at the end of the day, she’ll come around and even if she’s still simmering, she’ll lend a hand, she’ll have their back, and be there for people.

Unassuming: She’s lovely and can pull off the sweet and innocent like no one’s business if she puts her mind to it. She’s no one’s prime suspect.

Brothers: While not brothers by blood, Jason Finn and Charlie Danvers have been around Maddy's whole life and look out for her. If anything were to happen to her, it can be sure that Jason and Charlie will do what they can to help her out.

Family or Connections:

Shoshannah, Elle, Marian, Roy, Charlie, Jason, Dodge

Residence:

A tiny, one bedroom apartment on the fourth floor in The Sprawl

Career:

Employee of Sea and Sky Fine Art Gallery

PB: Emilie de Ravin