Justice Path from Ancient Greece
Jun 3, 2014 20:50:28 GMT -5
Post by Ides Alevi on Jun 3, 2014 20:50:28 GMT -5
Ides Alevi
Staff Writer
Today we'll be hearing from Miss Persephone Hobbes, graduate of Hammel Institute and Private Detective!
So... Persephone? That is an interesting name... Do you know what prompted your parents to christen you with that?
My mother is a Historian and she loves Ancient Greece, especially the mythology. My brother is named Theseus and my younger sister is Hestia. Apparently those were the three names she had liked the most. My middle name is Lynn so at least there’s a bit of normality there.
I see... And what do you prefer to be called, then?
I usually prefer Percie. Call me a romantic but I sort of like the idea of only significant others calling me by my first name. Also, Persephone is so formal sounding and I’m not necessarily a formal person.
All right, Miss Percie, you are a private investigator, correct? What sparked your interest in that field? Has it been a life-long ambition?
Well, not necessarily. A run in with injustice when I was twelve made me realize my dream of being a police detective, and I had wanted to stay one for a very long time…basically retire as one. Unfortunately, I was injured in the course of duty, and while I was recovering I started to think that it would be nicer to work for myself. I started looking into private detective work at that point and transitioned my life accordingly. So far I haven’t had any regrets.
A run-in with injustice? Care to expatiate on that?
Well, the day my powers manifested I had seen the principal's daughter do something she wasn't supposed to, and I confronted her about it, and we ended up fighting...physically. I er...won the altercation. When the principal asked what happened, I told him that his daughter had stolen something, and he claimed I was lying and suspended me. I think she only got detention. After that I just thought, “Wow…I never want that to happen to anyone, that really sucks.” Of course, in the way that twelve-year-old’s do. I wanted to be a detective and solve crimes and prevent that sort of injustice from happening again.
Understandable. What has been your most interesting case?
Ah well…private detective work isn’t really that exciting, not like they show it on TV at least, but I guess the ones that offer the most challenges are missing person cases. Usually these are cases that have met dead ends, and the local police don’t have the manpower or the resources to pursue them. Many times it’s a matter of someone having lost contact over the years and needing it back. Recently I was contracted to find someone in order for a will to be executed properly.
Interesting. Given certain prejudices against your sex, did you find it difficult to achieve your career path?
I’d love to say no, but the answer is more of an obvious yes. Both men and women express doubts about competence, as if all women can’t control their emotions long enough to do their job. Stamina and strength also comes up a lot, that entire idea of “keeping up with the boys” and being able to pull one’s weight, which, by the way is vastly disproportionate. I had never really done well with bullies of any kind when I was younger and I knew that when I went into the police force that I would have to put up with a lot of bullshit so…and uh…this is SUPER childish but I blame my youth…
Anyway, when I first entered the police force after I was hired in Burlington and we were working out in the communal gym, I started getting the usual testosterone laden crap, and even one or two of the older female beat cops did their thing, tearing me down. So I hunted down the biggest badass at the station, challenged him to a sparring match and wiped the floor with him. After that no one where I worked ever questioned my ability to do anything.
What do you enjoy most about your career?
Beyond the obvious answer of helping people, I really enjoy the challenge. There’s a lot that goes into owning my own business, like promotion and bill paying, record keeping that gets annoying, but I don’t mind. As far as my casework, I’m a naturally curious person so being able to snoop around and be sneaky satisfies that need. I like puzzles especially, so cyber fraud cases have a lot of appeal for me.
If you could choose any career, would you choose this same path? If not, what would you change?
After I was shot and recovering I suddenly had a lot of free time in which to think about my life and the direction it was going. Anytime I’d thought about a career move before my accident I thought being a U.S. Marshall would have been exciting, or joining the FBI or CIA. After my accident, those ideas weren’t unappealing but they didn’t seem AS appealing anymore. For some reason private investigator did and it seemed right somehow.
I know for a fact that since I was twelve I have never wanted to be anything other than a detective.
Why do you base your business in Pilot Ridge, when you could get more traffic in a larger city?
Oh! Well actually I get a lot of my business from nearby Burlington. I prefer living in Pilot Ridge because my parents are here and I like the quiet, small town atmosphere that it has. I travel rather extensively for my work but I don’t mind at all. I’d rather work all day in a big city and come home to my quiet small town than live and work in the same place if that makes sense?
I don’t really get a lot of business here beyond the occasional unfaithful spouse or sometimes a missing person case.
I understand you have siblings, one of which is a meta as well! What was the dynamic between yourself and your siblings growing up?
We had a typical relationship growing up. My older brother was equal parts doting and annoying and my little sister was precocious and clever. Hestia always knew what to with us when we annoyed her. She liked shoving Theseus into appliances and she often recounted our childhood with subtle details missing or added and waited for me to go insane trying to figure out if she was lying or not.
We’re all still very close and call each other a lot if we can’t get together in a timely manner to see everyone.
Did you enjoy your time at Hammel?
Oh yes I had a great time! I’m very fond of my time at Hammel.
What was your most enjoyable moment there?
Probably any moment where I was with my friends. I also enjoyed playing sports too, I was always pretty athletic, and I’m tall so I got snagged into the basketball team almost immediately. Theseus and Hestia played basketball too on their respective teams, so we would practice with each other out in front of the garage where dad put up a hoop.
A lot of students at Hammel come from out of town, whereas your family actually moved to Pilot Ridge, correct? What did you think of that?
Because my family has always been close, I was happy to move to where my brother was. I really hated living without him. It always felt as if something was missing. It was hard to leave my friends,but I was so young that I didn’t resent the move at all. I count myself as a native more often than not because I spent the majority of my life here, and it’s difficult to remember where I lived before because it doesn’t seem so important.
- - -
And we have a few questions for Rae!
What inspired Percie's character?
I honestly have so many things floating around my head that I have to write them down. I think Percie’s name came first, but she was supposed to be a totally different character. Initially, it was between her and Axelle as to who would come first and who would be what.
Inevitably, I gave Axelle her super strength/durability and Percie (who was originally supposed to communicate with bats) got memory manipulation. I can’t remember where that power idea came from but I wrote it down and sent it off to Sean for approval and at that point I had started to think about what sort of job a person with that power might have and thought that a private detective was pretty cool. Deb helped out a lot by being my sounding board for a lot of the ideas I was wading through at the time; including Percie’s obsession with coasters and her penchant for knitting.
After I chose her profession I thought, “Well…how did she become a private detective?” because I had done a lot of research about what it would take and the most reasonable course of action would have been for her to practice law enforcement for a while. So I wrote that part out and then I had to decide why she left. I had never used the excuse of an injury before so that lead to another bout of research…(ultimately I had to contact my father, a paramedic, about bullet wounds to get some good resources), and so the REASON as to why Percie was a private detective came to be. At about that point one of two things happens ~ I either change my mind completely or I got with it. I’m happy that where Percie is concerned that I went with it.
When I wrote her personality I was thinking about someone who was good at what she did, but wasn’t perfect. In that respect, Percie’s home suffers in cleanliness and she talks about work all the time, but not in the “omg she’s so obsessed with her job she can never turn off” type of person, it’s because she doesn’t really have a lot of outside interests or hobbies at the moment.
I do wish I had realized how maternal she was when I was writing the app though, and that she had a need to “protect”. It was always in the back of my mind when I was writing her, but it’s only been recently as I’ve been playing her that I’ve come to realize that she takes that “protector” role VERY seriously. Luckily, she’s mature and responsible enough to not just haul back and smash someone into a wall without an immediate cause, but the fact that she has to reign back that urge is a testament to how big that facet of her personality is.
How is she similar, or dissimilar, to other charries of yours?
When I first read this question I had a totally different answer but during my commute home yesterday I thought it through a lot more. I’ve played private detective type characters in the past but mostly within a fantasy universe with vampires/werewolves… those sorts of things.
At first I was going to say that she was similar to two characters in particular (Tameryn Meadows and Daina Barton specifically…ah memories) but I realized after some thought that she’s incredibly different. For one, Tameryn, as a psychic, used her abilities often, whereas Percie tries very hard not to use her powers if it’s avoidable (and she doesn’t carry around a sword). Even though in the universe where she lived Tameryn suffered no side effects, if she lived in Hammel-verse she would still ABSOLUTELY use her ability to get stuff done. Percie actively avoids her powers when she can because of her sense of justice and fair play. She WANTS to play by the rules, she WANTS the system to work the way it should, even if some parts are faulty.
In terms of just OTHER characters I’ve written in the past, Percie is quite similar. I like writing upbeat, good-humored people because they’re a lot of fun to play. They actively go out to make friends and interact with people, they’re easier to plot for and puzzle out when they face problems. When compared with my past two detectives, Daina was borderline psychotic and Tameryn was incredibly antisocial and moody.
The thing I like the most about Percie is her level of maturity. Most of the older characters I’ve played have had a tendency to act much younger than their age by sheer virtue of the fact that I am still a younger person playing an older person. With Percie, it should have gone the same way but I’m able to take that step back, reason it out through her mind and come out with someone who looks, talks and most importantly ACTS like an adult for the most part. By most part I mean when she’s not been drinking in excess and someone nearby hasn’t pissed her off. I imagine when she’s well and truly annoyed and angry she just says whatever comes to mind without thinking about it. I’d like to think that it was a trait she tackled and overcame from her youth but sometimes it sneaks up and gets the better of her.
What has been your favorite moment with her so far?
Probably her phone conversation with Derek. Despite my earlier comment about her acting like an adult most of the time, the fact that she has the potential to be a childish drunk is rather hilarious to me. Like, she WOULD resort to name-calling or sticking her tongue out at someone if they irritated her and she was just drunk enough where she didn’t want to think about her actions before she said anything.
Is there a character on Hammel that she especially gets along with?
So far of the active threads she’s in, the one going to smoothest is the one she has with Joe Honnick. I’m not sure where that’s going to go in the future but at least for right now they’re having a nice, civil, entertaining conversation with no name calling, kissing or drinking.
What are your future plans for her? Any relationships or plots you're wanting to build up?
There are plans in the works revolving around Phoenix-Oriel-Derek things that I’m looking forward to getting out that will be a lot of fun. Things like how her relationship with Oriel changes over time, how she tries to soften Derek up to meet his son and if/when that happens dealing with the results. Also just mothering the hell out of Phoenix… she loves that boy and just wants to give him all the pie.
I’d really like to see what happens between her and Joe socially. I know he works for PUSE but I’m not entirely sure what that means for her but it would be nice if they could be friends or at least acquaintances where if they met up they could have a nice chat.
What I’d REALLY love to see is for Percie to get some foster children she can interact with. Soon ICly I’d like for her to get her certification and then perhaps one or two of the kids that come in to Hammel as transfer students can be fostered by her if they need to be. She renovated her home specifically so that she could potentially foster sets of siblings. Even if, for example there was a set of three and two of those siblings were meta-humans to be educated at Hammel, Percie would insist that the third sibling come too. I think a lot of that ties deeply into her time as a cop before she became a detective and had to deal with separating families.
Thank you again, Percie and Rae, for agreeing to the interview!
You can visit Percie's profile here to learn more about her! Also, check out Rae's Plotter!
Staff Writer
Today we'll be hearing from Miss Persephone Hobbes, graduate of Hammel Institute and Private Detective!
So... Persephone? That is an interesting name... Do you know what prompted your parents to christen you with that?
My mother is a Historian and she loves Ancient Greece, especially the mythology. My brother is named Theseus and my younger sister is Hestia. Apparently those were the three names she had liked the most. My middle name is Lynn so at least there’s a bit of normality there.
I see... And what do you prefer to be called, then?
I usually prefer Percie. Call me a romantic but I sort of like the idea of only significant others calling me by my first name. Also, Persephone is so formal sounding and I’m not necessarily a formal person.
All right, Miss Percie, you are a private investigator, correct? What sparked your interest in that field? Has it been a life-long ambition?
Well, not necessarily. A run in with injustice when I was twelve made me realize my dream of being a police detective, and I had wanted to stay one for a very long time…basically retire as one. Unfortunately, I was injured in the course of duty, and while I was recovering I started to think that it would be nicer to work for myself. I started looking into private detective work at that point and transitioned my life accordingly. So far I haven’t had any regrets.
A run-in with injustice? Care to expatiate on that?
Well, the day my powers manifested I had seen the principal's daughter do something she wasn't supposed to, and I confronted her about it, and we ended up fighting...physically. I er...won the altercation. When the principal asked what happened, I told him that his daughter had stolen something, and he claimed I was lying and suspended me. I think she only got detention. After that I just thought, “Wow…I never want that to happen to anyone, that really sucks.” Of course, in the way that twelve-year-old’s do. I wanted to be a detective and solve crimes and prevent that sort of injustice from happening again.
Understandable. What has been your most interesting case?
Ah well…private detective work isn’t really that exciting, not like they show it on TV at least, but I guess the ones that offer the most challenges are missing person cases. Usually these are cases that have met dead ends, and the local police don’t have the manpower or the resources to pursue them. Many times it’s a matter of someone having lost contact over the years and needing it back. Recently I was contracted to find someone in order for a will to be executed properly.
Interesting. Given certain prejudices against your sex, did you find it difficult to achieve your career path?
I’d love to say no, but the answer is more of an obvious yes. Both men and women express doubts about competence, as if all women can’t control their emotions long enough to do their job. Stamina and strength also comes up a lot, that entire idea of “keeping up with the boys” and being able to pull one’s weight, which, by the way is vastly disproportionate. I had never really done well with bullies of any kind when I was younger and I knew that when I went into the police force that I would have to put up with a lot of bullshit so…and uh…this is SUPER childish but I blame my youth…
Anyway, when I first entered the police force after I was hired in Burlington and we were working out in the communal gym, I started getting the usual testosterone laden crap, and even one or two of the older female beat cops did their thing, tearing me down. So I hunted down the biggest badass at the station, challenged him to a sparring match and wiped the floor with him. After that no one where I worked ever questioned my ability to do anything.
What do you enjoy most about your career?
Beyond the obvious answer of helping people, I really enjoy the challenge. There’s a lot that goes into owning my own business, like promotion and bill paying, record keeping that gets annoying, but I don’t mind. As far as my casework, I’m a naturally curious person so being able to snoop around and be sneaky satisfies that need. I like puzzles especially, so cyber fraud cases have a lot of appeal for me.
If you could choose any career, would you choose this same path? If not, what would you change?
After I was shot and recovering I suddenly had a lot of free time in which to think about my life and the direction it was going. Anytime I’d thought about a career move before my accident I thought being a U.S. Marshall would have been exciting, or joining the FBI or CIA. After my accident, those ideas weren’t unappealing but they didn’t seem AS appealing anymore. For some reason private investigator did and it seemed right somehow.
I know for a fact that since I was twelve I have never wanted to be anything other than a detective.
Why do you base your business in Pilot Ridge, when you could get more traffic in a larger city?
Oh! Well actually I get a lot of my business from nearby Burlington. I prefer living in Pilot Ridge because my parents are here and I like the quiet, small town atmosphere that it has. I travel rather extensively for my work but I don’t mind at all. I’d rather work all day in a big city and come home to my quiet small town than live and work in the same place if that makes sense?
I don’t really get a lot of business here beyond the occasional unfaithful spouse or sometimes a missing person case.
I understand you have siblings, one of which is a meta as well! What was the dynamic between yourself and your siblings growing up?
We had a typical relationship growing up. My older brother was equal parts doting and annoying and my little sister was precocious and clever. Hestia always knew what to with us when we annoyed her. She liked shoving Theseus into appliances and she often recounted our childhood with subtle details missing or added and waited for me to go insane trying to figure out if she was lying or not.
We’re all still very close and call each other a lot if we can’t get together in a timely manner to see everyone.
Did you enjoy your time at Hammel?
Oh yes I had a great time! I’m very fond of my time at Hammel.
What was your most enjoyable moment there?
Probably any moment where I was with my friends. I also enjoyed playing sports too, I was always pretty athletic, and I’m tall so I got snagged into the basketball team almost immediately. Theseus and Hestia played basketball too on their respective teams, so we would practice with each other out in front of the garage where dad put up a hoop.
A lot of students at Hammel come from out of town, whereas your family actually moved to Pilot Ridge, correct? What did you think of that?
Because my family has always been close, I was happy to move to where my brother was. I really hated living without him. It always felt as if something was missing. It was hard to leave my friends,but I was so young that I didn’t resent the move at all. I count myself as a native more often than not because I spent the majority of my life here, and it’s difficult to remember where I lived before because it doesn’t seem so important.
- - -
And we have a few questions for Rae!
What inspired Percie's character?
I honestly have so many things floating around my head that I have to write them down. I think Percie’s name came first, but she was supposed to be a totally different character. Initially, it was between her and Axelle as to who would come first and who would be what.
Inevitably, I gave Axelle her super strength/durability and Percie (who was originally supposed to communicate with bats) got memory manipulation. I can’t remember where that power idea came from but I wrote it down and sent it off to Sean for approval and at that point I had started to think about what sort of job a person with that power might have and thought that a private detective was pretty cool. Deb helped out a lot by being my sounding board for a lot of the ideas I was wading through at the time; including Percie’s obsession with coasters and her penchant for knitting.
After I chose her profession I thought, “Well…how did she become a private detective?” because I had done a lot of research about what it would take and the most reasonable course of action would have been for her to practice law enforcement for a while. So I wrote that part out and then I had to decide why she left. I had never used the excuse of an injury before so that lead to another bout of research…(ultimately I had to contact my father, a paramedic, about bullet wounds to get some good resources), and so the REASON as to why Percie was a private detective came to be. At about that point one of two things happens ~ I either change my mind completely or I got with it. I’m happy that where Percie is concerned that I went with it.
When I wrote her personality I was thinking about someone who was good at what she did, but wasn’t perfect. In that respect, Percie’s home suffers in cleanliness and she talks about work all the time, but not in the “omg she’s so obsessed with her job she can never turn off” type of person, it’s because she doesn’t really have a lot of outside interests or hobbies at the moment.
I do wish I had realized how maternal she was when I was writing the app though, and that she had a need to “protect”. It was always in the back of my mind when I was writing her, but it’s only been recently as I’ve been playing her that I’ve come to realize that she takes that “protector” role VERY seriously. Luckily, she’s mature and responsible enough to not just haul back and smash someone into a wall without an immediate cause, but the fact that she has to reign back that urge is a testament to how big that facet of her personality is.
How is she similar, or dissimilar, to other charries of yours?
When I first read this question I had a totally different answer but during my commute home yesterday I thought it through a lot more. I’ve played private detective type characters in the past but mostly within a fantasy universe with vampires/werewolves… those sorts of things.
At first I was going to say that she was similar to two characters in particular (Tameryn Meadows and Daina Barton specifically…ah memories) but I realized after some thought that she’s incredibly different. For one, Tameryn, as a psychic, used her abilities often, whereas Percie tries very hard not to use her powers if it’s avoidable (and she doesn’t carry around a sword). Even though in the universe where she lived Tameryn suffered no side effects, if she lived in Hammel-verse she would still ABSOLUTELY use her ability to get stuff done. Percie actively avoids her powers when she can because of her sense of justice and fair play. She WANTS to play by the rules, she WANTS the system to work the way it should, even if some parts are faulty.
In terms of just OTHER characters I’ve written in the past, Percie is quite similar. I like writing upbeat, good-humored people because they’re a lot of fun to play. They actively go out to make friends and interact with people, they’re easier to plot for and puzzle out when they face problems. When compared with my past two detectives, Daina was borderline psychotic and Tameryn was incredibly antisocial and moody.
The thing I like the most about Percie is her level of maturity. Most of the older characters I’ve played have had a tendency to act much younger than their age by sheer virtue of the fact that I am still a younger person playing an older person. With Percie, it should have gone the same way but I’m able to take that step back, reason it out through her mind and come out with someone who looks, talks and most importantly ACTS like an adult for the most part. By most part I mean when she’s not been drinking in excess and someone nearby hasn’t pissed her off. I imagine when she’s well and truly annoyed and angry she just says whatever comes to mind without thinking about it. I’d like to think that it was a trait she tackled and overcame from her youth but sometimes it sneaks up and gets the better of her.
What has been your favorite moment with her so far?
Probably her phone conversation with Derek. Despite my earlier comment about her acting like an adult most of the time, the fact that she has the potential to be a childish drunk is rather hilarious to me. Like, she WOULD resort to name-calling or sticking her tongue out at someone if they irritated her and she was just drunk enough where she didn’t want to think about her actions before she said anything.
Is there a character on Hammel that she especially gets along with?
So far of the active threads she’s in, the one going to smoothest is the one she has with Joe Honnick. I’m not sure where that’s going to go in the future but at least for right now they’re having a nice, civil, entertaining conversation with no name calling, kissing or drinking.
What are your future plans for her? Any relationships or plots you're wanting to build up?
There are plans in the works revolving around Phoenix-Oriel-Derek things that I’m looking forward to getting out that will be a lot of fun. Things like how her relationship with Oriel changes over time, how she tries to soften Derek up to meet his son and if/when that happens dealing with the results. Also just mothering the hell out of Phoenix… she loves that boy and just wants to give him all the pie.
I’d really like to see what happens between her and Joe socially. I know he works for PUSE but I’m not entirely sure what that means for her but it would be nice if they could be friends or at least acquaintances where if they met up they could have a nice chat.
What I’d REALLY love to see is for Percie to get some foster children she can interact with. Soon ICly I’d like for her to get her certification and then perhaps one or two of the kids that come in to Hammel as transfer students can be fostered by her if they need to be. She renovated her home specifically so that she could potentially foster sets of siblings. Even if, for example there was a set of three and two of those siblings were meta-humans to be educated at Hammel, Percie would insist that the third sibling come too. I think a lot of that ties deeply into her time as a cop before she became a detective and had to deal with separating families.
Thank you again, Percie and Rae, for agreeing to the interview!
You can visit Percie's profile here to learn more about her! Also, check out Rae's Plotter!
