whispered_words

Name: Lily Cartwright

Age: 21

Gender: female

Type: Dreamer

Appearance:

Tall and willowy with long red hair and expressive brown eyes, Lily looks like she could have stepped out of a Renaissance painting yet at the same time, her features have a vulnerable quality, soft and almost childlike. Her wardrobe befits her profession with outfits to suit a variety of tastes depending on the client though while off the clock, she likes simple clothes that don’t attract attention.

Personality:

With doe-like eyes and a whispering voice, Lily gives off a vulnerable air but far from being the fragile, demure woman she appears to be, though she can play the part if necessary, in reality she is a strong-willed individual with a nasty temper who is all too aware of how harsh the world can be. She hasn’t had an easy life and doesn’t harbour illusions about the way things work yet at the same time is still a firm believer in loyalty and treasures the friendships she has. She also, somewhat ironically given her profession, has a romantic streak and longs for a loving relationship even if she’s not sure she’ll ever find one.

Sexuality:

She will happily sleep with men as her work demands but she is more attracted to women, particularly on an emotional level.

City History:

Lily’s childhood wasn’t an easy one but growing up in the Sprawl that was hardly unusual. Neither was being raised by one parent, in her case it was her father Daniel, who worked down at the waterfront. Her mother was around for the first few years of Lily’s life but she wasn’t well; prone to violent outbursts and suffering from depression she struggled with motherhood and one day when Lily was sick and wouldn’t stop crying, her mother reached into the crib and began to strangle her in a vain attempt to make her be quiet. Thankfully Daniel arrived home in time to stop her from killing baby Lily but irreparable damage had been done to her vocal chords. Not that Lily has any memory of it happening; her mother left them a few days later and it wasn’t until years later that Daniel explained what happened when she asked why she couldn’t talk like the other children in their neighbourhood.

After that her life was fairly uneventful, her lack of voice causing problems from time to time but nothing that couldn’t be overcome, until she was fourteen and her father was killed in an accident down at the docks and with no other family to turn to and no-one able to take her in, she quickly found herself on the streets. She tried to get in with the local gang of street kids but they wouldn’t accept her so she turned to begging to survive and for the first couple of months that was enough but when winter came she began to struggle. Prostitution had never occurred to her until the night where a drunken businessman stumbled across her sleeping rough and invited her back to his hotel. The lure of getting out of the cold was too strong to pass up and while the experience was hardly memorable, the man was fairly gently and the money he gave her afterwards was more than she’d make begging in a week. She learnt the rules of the game quickly; which guys to target, which to avoid and how to keep off the radar of the police as well as befriending another streetwalker, a girl called Ruth who was only a year older than her.

The two of them looked out for each other and for a while things were good, they were even making enough money to scrape enough together for a place to live but it didn’t last - one night when they’d been out working, Ruth didn’t come back. Lily went to go to the police about her disappearance only to be told nothing could be done about it and even after Ruth’s body was found dumped down by the sixth street bridge, they said there was no way of knowing who killed her friend and were dropping the case. Furious, Lily trashed an interview room at the station and was put in the cells for the night, a story that quickly made the rounds at the station and wound up reaching a call girl called Vera who had a regular client on the force. The first Lily knew about this was when a beautiful woman came to the station and offered to buy her breakfast. Over a stack of pancakes Vera told her about a woman called Eris Stockard and Babylon, a place where girls like her were looked after, got to control who their clients were, where everything was consensual. Lily thought it sounded too good to be true but with Ruth gone she couldn’t keep their apartment and she didn’t want to go back to the street so she took Vera up on the offer.

To her amazement Babylon proved to be everything Vera had promised and as well as providing somewhere safe to live and work, Eris also saw to her education, providing tutors who taught her to read and write. She also learnt sign language and at Eris’ suggestion took up the cello, something she turned out to have an aptitude for. Vera she grew very close to and eventually ended up sharing an apartment with the older girl. The years that followed were some of the happiest of Lily’s life which made what happened next all the worse.

Eris’ sudden death hit all the girls hard but when the O’Malleys took over, none of them realised just how bad things were going to get. Lily had been reluctant to stay without Eris in charge anyway and when she saw what kind of changes were being made, she wanted to leave but that was easier said than done. Vera point blank refused to leave, saying no-one was going to chase her out of her own home and with the older girl the closest thing Lily had to family these days she was reluctant to go without her. The O’Malleys weren’t about to let their newly acquired assets just walk out the door either as she found when she did finally try to leave after one of the other girls was roughed up by a client. When she tried to protest, she was given a black eye and a busted lip for her troubles and was told if she made any attempt to leave again or ran away, it would be one of the other girls who paid the price.

So she stayed and suffered it out, surviving like she’d one before until the day came when Babylon was shut down, when Eris turned up alive, changed but still looking out for her girls, offering them work at her new venture, an escort agency uptown. Lily took her up on it and has been working for the agency since as well as keeping on some of her old clients.

Special Skills and Abilities:

Lily is fluent in sign language and plays the cello beautifully. Also, after working in the sex trade for the past 6 years, she is understandably very good at pleasing a partner in the bedroom.

Weaknesses:

After her vocal chords were irreparably damaged when she was a little girl, Lily has never been able to speak louder than a whisper. Sure she can make herself heard if sitting close to someone in a quiet room or by speaking directly in their ear but in many situations she is effectively mute, using sign language and notes to communicate, and she’s never going to be able to call for help if she’s in trouble.

Lily is very good at playing the part required, being the woman her client wants her to be but after years of doing it, she’s lost sight of her own identity. With no family and few friends to speak of other than Vera, she struggles to know who exactly she is when the client leaves her and she strips the finery away.

While she has no desire to leave her current line of work, it is likely Lily would struggle to make living doing anything else. Thanks to Eris she is as well educated as she would have been if she’d attended school, if not a little better, but with her disability a lot of typical ‘women's work’ isn’t an option and with her profession it’s unlikely anyone is going to see her as wife-material even if she were that way inclined. While she might not see it as a bad thing, ultimately Lily is stuck.

The expression ‘beware the quiet ones’ could have been coined to describe Lily. Possessing a temper as fiery as her hair, she is a passionate young woman who feels things very strongly and lacking the ability to fully vocalise her emotions, she tends to express them physically, frequently by throwing or breaking things.

She is also lonely and craves an emotional connection with someone, something honest and true in contrast to what she does for a living. She has had a crush on Vera for years but her best friend has made it clear that as fond as she is of Lily, the feelings are not reciprocated. This combined with her problems communicating make it hard for her to try and connect with new people.

Strengths:

Whether streetwalking in the Sprawl or escorting Eidolon City elite, Lily always seems to fit into the role required of her. Whether it’s something as simple as the right clothes, mannerisms or altering her whole demeanour, she can seamlessly become part of the world she’s inhabiting at the time whatever it may be.

Ultimately Lily is a survivor; everything life has thrown at her she has come through it, perhaps not unscathed but through it none the less and she has a willful determination to keep doing the same.

Family or Connections:

Vera ~ Eris ~ Becky

Residence:

A shared apartment uptown in the same building the agency operates from.

Career:

Call girl / Escort

PB: Karen Gillian