Birdie Carmine

Marchessa of Pearls

Aspect 0 (5 AMPs)
Domain 3 (5 DMPs)
Realm 3 (5 RMPs)
Spirit 1 (5 SMPs)

Gifts:
Durant
Glorious (Birdie's beauty inspires people to be truthful and forthcoming when asked a question in her presence)
Encasing Pearl (In essence, turns one person into a pearl)
Imperator Property: Inspirational

Handicaps:
Affiliation: Code of Angels

  1. Beauty is the highest principle
  2. Justice is a form of beauty
  3. Lesser beings should respect their betters

Restriction: Summonable
Restriction: Revelatory Trait (Dirt or stains do not stick to Birdie - she cannot wear makeup)
Virtue: Pride
Imperator Property: Cold
-Imperator's Affiliation:

  1. Be strong in adversity
  2. Be wise in decision
  3. In action, be elegance itself

Bonds:
The sanctity of her estate - 5
The fashion industry - 3
Her Chancel - 3
Mercredi, Birdie's personal assistant (a walking, talking violin - a gift from the Noble of the Orchestra) - 2
Lt. Adm. Boaz Greebe, in command of the Margaroons -2
Lottie Graham, Birdie's older sister - 2
Het Meisje met de Parel (The Girl With the Pearl Earring by Vermeer), which Birdie owns the original copy, inherited from the previous Power of Pearls. (The museum piece is just a very good, very old copy). - 1
Mint tea, Birdie's favorite beverage - 1
Classical music - 1

Anchors: (2)
Clara Ho - Middle management in a cosmetics firm. Formerly, Birdie's boss. Hate
No second anchor, yet.

Estate:
Pearls
The Pearl begins as an irritation. An ugliness. A grain of sand, a splinter of wood or some equivalent nuisance that has been transformed into a thing of great beauty. With this in mind, Birdie feels it is her job to reform the ugliness in Creation. Usually in subtle ways. Like encouraging an otherwise homely woman to wear just enough makeup to make her look lovely or guiding a fool to learn a pearl of wisdom from his folly.

Appearance:
Currently, Birdie is twenty-nine years old. She has dark brown hair, typically arranged very tidily into a low or braided bun. Sometimes, she strings pearls into her hair. Her skin is rather pale, in high contrast to her dark hair. She has a well-toned, but not quite athletic frame. Typically, she wears pearl jewelry and clothes with pearls stitched on them. However, she does not shun the fashionable merits of other gems, and will wear them from time to time. Although she did wear cosmetics at one time, she is unable to wear them as a Noble (Revelatory Trait). This works fine, though, since her "natural" beauty functions better (Glorious).

History:
From a spectator's perspective, Alberta "Birdie" Carmine's life wasn't observably remarkable. She successfully conquered high school and a business degree in college. Her family praised her wise decisions, scolded her foolish ones and praised her successes. She idolized her older sister, Lottie (Charlotte), and hoped to be a successful businesswoman like her. After college, Birdie landed a job with a cosmetics firm, working under a woman by the name of Clara Ho. Within the year, Birdie had decided that Clara was incompetent and out to get her (which, as with most management, is rarely as true as the employees wish to believe). Clara, on the other hand, felt that Birdie was out to get her job and resented her (which wasn't entirely untrue). However, the final straw came when Clara refused to allow Birdie the time off to attend her sister's wedding rehearsal. Birdie intended to begin looking for a new job after the wedding, but a new job found her as soon the reception dinner ended. As she walked out of the reception hall, she was pulled from the world she knew and had plans for and had the responsibility of Nobility painfully thrust upon her.

As much as Birdie would now like to believe that she is wise and graceful, her pride has led her to act rashly and even vengefully. This has alienated her with more than one Power of the Light. Her grace, of course is nothing compared with the grace displayed by the average Noble with miraculous fluidity of movement.

Birdie keeps her personal quarters on a small island in the middle of an oyster-bedded lake, on a large piece of floating rock above the Chancel's city. Her groundskeepers keep the lake filled with waterlilies and flowering reeds. Inside her quarters, Birdie's personal staff keeps the place spotless or risks losing their job…or becoming a part of a slowly-increasing collection of pearl statues, if they make a more severe mistake.

Birdie was not the first Noble of Pearls. There were at least two before her. She has kept some of what the previous Pearls had kept as personal mementos (but the elephant sculpted entirely from snot just had to go). Shortly after Birdie's commencement, the Power of the Orchestra sent Mercredi, a violin with arms, legs, a voice and a mind of its own, as a gift and offering of friendship. A friendship was formed and, occasionally, Birdie will meet with the Orchestra for tea in a Refuge on Earth, on occasion.

Birdie continues to care about her older sister, but has been reluctant to anchor her, for fear of the troubles it may bring Lottie.

Emblem:
A white lotus in the middle of a wreath of deep purple, pearlescent bougainvillea buds.

Wound Levels:
2 Surface
1 Serious
1 Deadly

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