BLAKE, CADENCE
Dec 31, 2015 5:49:26 GMT -5
Post by Cadence Blake on Dec 31, 2015 5:49:26 GMT -5
The BasicsName: Cadence Eileen Blake
Nicknames: Cadie
Age: Twenty
Orientation: Bisexual
Desired Rank/Job: University Student
Powers: Shadow Manipulation
Play By: Shannyn SossomonThe DetailsHair Color: Cadence's fine ebony hair is incredibly short, and typically spiked.
Eye Color: Cadence’s eyes are a deep amber pigmentation.
Any Piercings? She has her naval and left tragus pierced
Any Tattoos? A thumbnail moon on her right wrist
Any Scars? None that require any attention. Just the usual wear and tear of adolescence
General Appearance: Cadence is lithe in build, with wiry muscles in thanks to a very active lifestyle. She ran track, and enjoys cycling for fitness. Her torso is lean, and her waist is slightly larger, giving her firm, well formed hips. She stands at roughly 5’8” , weighing in at 60 kilos.
Cadence's skin tone is an all-year tan. Despite her mixed lineage, with a few Maori's thrown in there, Cadence will also burn easily under the sun.
Personality: As an individual, Cadie possesses a rather laid back personality, with a dark sense of humor and a propensity for sarcastic remarks.
An inner voice maintains a strict discipline at all times and she is best off when left to her own schedule. Truly discriminating, she is too smart to fall for an insincere line, false promise or the lure of great riches. Her motto is, always look for the worst in others before you look for any good. You'll save yourself allot of trouble.
Stealthy is probably another good word to describe her. She does not like to make her presence known unless it is her own intention. It has caused many of her family members and friends to propose she wear a bell around her neck. Do not mistake her quiet for ignorance or modesty when the opposite lurks underneath her unblinking gaze.
Though Cadie does not hold all people in high regard, she is not without kindness, or loyalty for that matter to those whom she considers close to her. She has demonstrated this many a time, though she would not always appreciate the acknowledgment.
As a friend Cadence is loyal, and kind but she prefers to show her feelings in practical rather than emotional ways; and will take her responsibilities to her friends and family very seriously. Physical affection is a strict no-go. When she speaks, she intends no real harm,she simply calls it like she will see it and does not allow emotions to cloud her judgment.
It is not that Cadie is truly unemotional, she just to not trust ther own emotions so she incorporates them into her own idea of who she is.
Occasionally she may wonder if there is something in life that she is missing because she does not feel like other people feel. This does not necessarily prevent her from being involved in relationships, but her haphephobia does make it difficult for them to progress into something more intimate. She is capable of this but the person on the other end will probably always notice an air of detachment from her.
Cadence considers herself as a sort of visionary, unconventional and intellectually independent. She deviates from the crowd and goes her own way. She is always after intellectual stimulation, constantly discovering something new, forming new opinions and stubbornly traveling her way regardless of what other people think. She is filled with paradoxes, is interested in the opposite ends of the spectrum, likes to be alone yet enjoys having company as well, she enjoys experiencing both sides and seeing both opinions as they formulate new ideas with her forward thinking, active mind.Your VicesLikes: Hoop dancing, wine, rainbows, lizards, gaming, taxidermy.
Dislikes: The dark, liquorice, white chocolate.
Strengths: Dancing, shadow puppets.
Weaknesses: She is quite OCD about her morning routines, to the point where she'll feel a certain amount of anxiety if her regiment is disturbed.
Fears: Cadence has haphephobia (a fear of touch)
Secret: She picks her nose.Family TiesFather: Archibald Blake
Mother: Roxanne Blake (nee: White)
Siblings: None
Any Other Important People: None as of yetHistoryCadence was born an only child, in a small town on the North Island of New Zealand. Her father was a veterinarian, and her mother, an artist who worked freelance. She had been born deaf, and so for as long as Cadence can remember, she has been able to use Sign Language fluently.
Cadence was twelve when her parents finally trust her to stay home alone while they went to one of those stuffy uptight art shows her mum loved so much. At first she was so excited for the chance t show her parents how grown up she could be, setting up watching movies in the lounge room until after her usual forced bedtime. It wasn’t until the lights were turned off she realized how frightened she was to be alone. Sat huddled with her stuffed animal army she began to feel a smothering feeling as though the walls were closing in around her, but as absurd as it may sound in actual fact it was shadow. It was as though her paranoia of being left alone got away with her. Not entirely sure how she did it herself, Cadence snapped and shouted for the creeping shadows to leave her alone, and to her surprise they did.
A week later there was a knock on the door, and Cadence came downstairs to find her parents were in deep conversation with someone in the living room. Initially she had been ushered outside and not let in on the secret to begin with. She would soon find out that she as to be shipped off to Sweden to some school for the deranged, or meta as she was promptly corrected by the official looking stiff in a suit.
While growing up, Cadence’s small family struggled financially. However they never went without what they needed, and her parents tried to give her the best of what they could given the situation. So when Cadence was twelve and her gift began to develop, her parents knew that they needed to give their daughter the opportunity to develop her unique skills with children her own age, and train her to be something other than a weapon.
They decided to send Cadence to Kocher haute école pour les surdoués, the Swiss Boarding school for meta-humans. She was good at school, with a keen interest in history, and anatomy, as well as art, and sculpting. One day she hoped to work for a museum as a preparator. But yeah, about school.
While she did rather well with her studies in most subjects, Cadence was described by most of her peers as withdrawn, avoiding the few friends she did make, and once they began to ask questions, she’d explain that she was just sorting some things out. She would return to them eventually. There were days where she would sign into class, but seldom attend, occasionally she would skip school all together. When she did show up, she would sit far from the other students, finding a secluded spot, and sit with her head bowed in a book.
If it weren’t for an empathetic guidance Councillor, she may have failed a year of school when she was fourteen. It wasn't necessarily the grades which killed her, more or less the fact that she clocked up a lot of absences and had struggled to catch up since. With the help of Kaitlyn the guidance Councillor and a very attractive older student Jeffery assigned to help her with after-hours tutoring she soon caught up and got back on track; the attention he paid to he helped bring her out of her antisocial little shell, however despite her attempts her feelings went unrequited.
Cadence grew more and more confident in her abilities; learning all she could on how to create, shape and manipulate shadow. As her abilities have progressed, she needs less and less to actively concentrate on harnessing her skills and can now do it in such a way it seems that the shadow itself in another entity. While she was afraid of the shadows as a child, she now finds comfort in the way she can make them reach out to her.
She can "dissolve" into the shadow, which essentially means that she can manipulate the shadows in a way in which to "cloak" her. A downside to this is that there needs to be much more absence of light; in a darkened room, at dusk, or at night. A couple of extra side effects are fatigue, photosensitivity and insomnia. All things that she continues to work on.
Graduating year she was really forced to consider her options for the future and she wanted to make all the right choices and spent hours doing research into possible colleges. After much debating with herself she made the decision to leave all she had grown to know in Switzerland and moved to Vermont where she would attend the University of Vermont.Roleplay ExampleMilo hadn't wanted to go out tonight, but Hadrian had insisted they deserved a night out. They were at some pub with a name he couldn't pronounce. It was small, with a brick exterior, there were no windows, apart from the ones facing the street, dim lighting, a few pool tables, a dart board, and tables scattered around as though no real thought had been put into where they should be placed.
It was one of Hadrian's old flings who'd invited them there. It was her birthday, and Milo supposed she hoped that she and Hadrian might get it on later or something, because she was basically hanging off of him for the first few hours.
Milo sat at the bar for some of the time, wiping his nose on his sleeve every so often. It was the reason he did not want to go out tonight, he had a cold. So he was headachey, and irritable, and the only good thing that was coming from it was that Hadrian had shout him a few drinks and they were going to his head a little faster than they usually would have if he wasn't so congested.
So although he wasn't really making much of an effort to include himself, and was just focusing on a game of pool Hadrian and some guy called Arty - or was it Marty - were playing, he was also trying to ignore the sting of feeling left out. The vodka with soda he was sipping... oh, gods it was horrid. The vodka was called Zubrowka, and was pretty much only found in Poland. If he was drinking it with anything but soda, then maybe there'd be an improvement in the taste, but he hadn't even asked for the drink in the first place, it was Hadrian who had fetched it for him last time he'd lined up at the bar for a refill.
The only reason Milo was sitting at the table was because he'd refused to be left alone while he was ill; Milo wanted company, but he hadn't expected to still feel so... alone. Everyone was talking, laughing, cheering, drinking... and it was almost worse than being left alone in an empty house for the night. After he finished his drink, the teenager tried to catch Hadrian's eye, but the alien hybrid was focused on the game, elbowing his opponent away and laughing at something the guy was saying. So Milo tapped one of the girls on the shoulder and asked her to tell Hadrian he had headed home when they finished the game
Milo left the empty glass at the table, side-stepping around a few people while he made his way back to the entrance/exit of the pub, completely unnoticed. Shivering a little as he zipped up a leather jacket he'd borrowed off of Hadrian, Milo kept his head down as a light drizzle of rain began to fall from the sky, the stars hidden away by dark clouds.
Milo knew the way home well enough. At least he thought he did. It wasn't until two turns later that he realized he was hopelessly lost... and that someone had been following him. Milo saw stars as his head was slammed against a brick wall, and he yelped as he was shoved against it. Then he was shoved forwards, stumbling and tripping over a bin, landing hard on one of his arms. Milo cried out in pain and scrambled to get upright but was kicked back down against the pavement. The noise scared a cat, and with a hiss, it ran off, squeezing under a fence and out of sight.
A kick landed to Milo's ribs and another to his hip, hard enough to knock the breath out of him. He swallowed his agony as the beating continued, until a hand gripped his hair, pulling him to his feet harshly.
"You scummy freak!" A gravelly voice snarled in his ear. "Think you lot are clever, huh?" The man slammed Milo's head hard against one of the dumpsters, leaving his mouth and nose bleeding. Milo cried out, but did not struggle. "Your little bitch girlfriend was lucky this time. But they'll just keep sending us until you, and every lot of your pathetic friends lives are snuffed out."
Milo hitched painfully and gasped as the cold metal of a blade pressed against his neck. "I'm not going to kill you yet. Though I very well can. Remember that. And remember for the rest of your life that you and all of the other abominations like you are mutt's, just begging for scraps at the high table." The blade moved, though instead of tearing flesh, it cut through some of Milo's dreadlocks, dropping them to the floor.
Milo sobbed, uttering a weak, pleading 'no', too fearful to try and break free, the sudden shock of air on the back of his neck and the gravity of what it meant rendered him completely still.
Then as suddenly as he'd begun to hack away at his hair, someone's shout from the end of the alley made his attacker let him go abruptly, fleeing from discovery. Milo slid down the wall to his knees, frantically running his hands through his shorn locks, his heart beating like a jackhammer. He didn't notice that anyone had approached him until a gentle hand touched his shoulder, and he looked up shakily. The person he saw was a young man with a shock of yellow hair, sticking straight up in spikes as though he had been on the receiving end of a lightning bolt. The guy didn't say a word, instead grabbing Milo's arms and helping him up off of the ground to stand on unsteady legs.
Milo allowed him to help, lacking the energy to do it himself. He should have known he'd be attacked; the NAA were hell bent on getting rid of them, and of course they'd want to get back at them because Cadence killed one of their own. Of course they would associate him with that and lash out accordingly. He was stupid to think that he'd be safe walking on his own.
Milo said nothing as the blonde slipped under his good arm, helping him limp back onto the street. Milo kept his face down, devastated and thoroughly humiliated. The young man said something in a language Milo was unfamiliar with, leading him towards another guy with a shaved head and a spacer in each earlobe, who looked tense, saying something in a sharp tone to the blonde who had helped Milo, then taking a long drag of a cigarette. He flicked it into the street, and approached cautiously, raising his hands as Milo flinched away from him hard. For a moment Milo felt betrayed; had he only been rescued to be another groups target?
Milo grit his teeth, tensed for more harsh treatment, and was surprised when a hand lightly grasped his arm instead. The blonde boy remained at his side and though he spoke nonsense at him, he was smiling, offering a paper bag with what looked to be a bottle inside. Overcome with pain and dizziness, Milo didn't struggle when the bald guy made him sit on a nearby seat at a cafe that had long since been closed for the night, pressing a clean cloth to his bloody face. It was then that the blonde spoke just one word he could sort of understand, spoken in Polish.
'Cider' he said, and offered the paper bag again. Milo must have looked wary because the blonde took a sip of it and exhaled, making a show of being satisfied. He offered the paper bag again and Milo shakily took it, sniffing, and then carefully sipping the contents. It wasn't great, but it wasn't the depressing vodka with soda he was drinking earlier. The cider, tasting of apples, cloves and cinnamon, warmed a path down his throat and settled in his stomach. Milo licked his lips and drained the rest of it, perhaps taking far too much comfort in the drink than he should have.
He did not flinch away again when the guys took a seat on the either side of him and in front of him at the small table. Though they talked to each other in their own language, the blonde haired boy laid a protective arm around Milo's shoulders and somehow he didn't feel nearly as alienated as before, even with the language barrier. Wearily, he rested his head in his arms folded over the table and simply let the words wash over him.
After a while, the boys each stood, helping Milo stand shakily on his own two feet. Where they started leading him, Milo didn't know, but he felt oddly protected, limping between the two lads as they took him across the road to a pay phone. He looked from one of the boys' cheery smile to the others calm and thoughtful countenance, and then attempted a broken smile of his own. "Call friend," the bald one said in broken Polish. The blonde grabbed some coin from his pocket and handed them to Milo. "Go home," he nodded.
Milo thought about it. Who could he call? He wasn't in any shape to go back to Hadrian. Nor was he up for going home alone either. Couldn't he just stay with these guys for a while? They were kind, and their cider drink was nice. But a part of Milo's mind that still had an ounce of logic in it knew it wasn't an ideal wish. Still, he hoped that maybe now he could count these boys among some new friends.
Cadence! He thought, and after saying a slightly slurred, 'thanks' in English, he inserted the coins into the payphone and dialed Cadence's number.
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Cadence was furious. Milo had been on her couch for about thirty minutes now, and the entire time she tended to Milo's swollen cheek and lip, asking him questions about what had happened, she was cursing Hadrian for not noticing sooner that Milo had slipped away from the pub. Milo made no move to refuse being touched or handled, simply sitting there on the couch. He had hardly so much as blinked, simply staring at the wall. A couple of times his eyes glistened, but no tears had yet fallen that Cadie could see. When she sat beside him on the couch, he didn't so much as glance at her. "Milo? Talk to me. Did you get a good look at who did this?"
When Milo didn't respond, she reached out and gently touched his shoulder. He flinched a little, but did not pull away from her. Cadence could feel him trembling underneath her fingers.
She had been annoyed at Milo when she received his call. It had been about a quarter to midnight, and she had only really just gotten comfortable. She felt terrible about it now, but she'd immediately started to berate him for calling so late, suspecting that perhaps he had drunk dialed her. The moment she heard his voice though, her hair stood on edge.
Not wanting to wake Shona, she let her small truck roll down the driveway in neutral before starting it up, immediately turning up the heater. Milo had not really explained much further beyond the fact that someone had beaten him up, that he was okay, and was sitting with a couple of people outside a cafe. She got the name of the cafe, one she knew of luckily enough, and was on her way within the next five minutes.
The two people who had heard the scuffle in the alley, and since had been keeping an eye on Milo, as well as offering him another bottle of cider, were backpackers from France, with very limited English skills. She thanked them again and again, quickly ushering Milo into the passanger seat of her truck before making a very tense ten minute drive back to the house she shared with Shona.
Cadence bit her lip as she took a better look at Milo's hair. Whoever had done this had clearly made a mess of it. With a pang of sympathy, and regret for what she was about to do, the Blutbad then got up and walked to the kitchen, opening one of the bottom drawers and retrieved a pair of scissors, then a plastic bag.
When she got back to the couch, she felt an awful pang of sympathy. Whoever cut his hair had done an awful hack job, several dreads were shorter than others, some gone completely. Cadence looked at him, trying to convey that she only wanted to help him. "Milo, they have to go. I'm really sorry." Milo glanced at her, then at the scissors, and shrugged, not looking her in the eye.
He closed his eyes as she gently bowed his head under her gentle hands. Not long after, he felt the gentle snipping of scissors, evening out the mess his attacker had left behind. His shoulders tensed, but Milo didn't pull away.
It wasn't until Cadence had finished, and then began to sing under her breath that Milo curled forward, shaking "I'm so sorry," Cadence said softly, taking a seat beside her friend, and wrapping an arm around him. She kept singing, something about a man who had been hung for murder, and who was calling for his lover, telling her that she should run away. At least that was how Milo had interpreted it until Cadence gave a little more insight. To her, she believed that the man who had been hung was telling his lover to flee to him, rather than away. That perhaps the man thought that the place he had left her was worse than death. He was singing for her to die alongside him, with her own rope necklace.
Saying that 'strange things did happen here', acknowledging what humans do to oppress, control, and exploit each other, and how they were fighting against the NAA for their freedom. 'No stranger would it be, if we met at midnight in the hanging tree', indicating martyrdom given that the meeting is "in" in the hanging tree and that it is not strange or unreasonable to have to sacrifice your own life to prioritize freedom over surrender.
Midnight could symbolize death of a prior day and start off a new one, so even if loves are lost, the fight for basic freedom continues on. 'Where they strung up a man they say who murdered three', it could be that the man was innocent. 'They' had accused the man of doing so, and strung him up.
Perhaps he had murdered three, or as simply as spat in the face of three bigots, we don't know. He was very likely wrongly punished, and was singing for his lover to flee either to safety, or Cadence mused, running to the tree to fight and be free, either in victory or in death. 'Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me', the shift in tense could mean that the singer is saying that they'd been at the tree before, fighting for their freedom, and was making a call to action, asking his lover to join him, perhaps in the ultimate sacrifice of life.
It was a song that Cadence enjoyed, saying that it sort of symbolized each of them, in those ways. Milo didn't really understand it, but it still gave him the chills. She sang only a little off-key, and it wasn't long before Milo was half asleep, all but snoring against her shoulder.
She moved him so that he lay upon her lap, tear tracks evident on his face, and then sighed, hating that she could do nothing more to help him. Using one hand to comb through the remnants of Milo's mutilated dreadlocks, she was not sure how long she'd sat there, but eventually she heard the familiar hum of a motorbike pull into the driveway and the door was opened hastily, Hadrian rushing in, pausing for a moment before closing the door behind him.
"Cadie, I - " He began but Cadie hissed a 'shhh' at him, and gave him a stern, accusing look.
"Why did you let him leave?" She hissed, and all Hadrian seemed able to manage was a slow shake of his head as he knelt down in front of them.
"I am so, so sorry," The alien hybrid whispered, staring at Milo with remorse.
"I am so sorry I didn't notice he'd left." He looked up at Cadence while she continued to run her fingers through Milo's shawn hair. "We were only staying a couple of hours..."
"I think he's more upset over his dreadlocks, than that you ditched him." Cadence said honestly, with a dry half-laugh.
"Why would they cut his hair?" Hadrian was looking over the cuts and bruises forming upon his friends' face.
"To make a point? Like they wanted to do with me." She paused. "Hadrian, it's going to get worse."
Hadrian only nodded, pursing his lips as he reached for Milo's hand, giving it the gentlest of a squeeze. Milo muttered something in his sleep, his own fingers wrapping very lightly over his friends'.
As he slept, she made a quiet vow to him that somehow she would make it right.What About You?Name: Amesie
Age: Twenty... *mumbles*
Experience: Ten years
How Did You Find Us? Recommended by Piffle
Ready To Play? Wait... There's toys involved? I got dibbs on the building blocks!
