Undertow — Meridian and Byron
Meridian, daughter of Flora, and her brother, Byron -- character development
© 2004 Darrell Hischke, Anne Devlin and Simone Cooper
--Anne:
I'd like to play a female. First cousins of same age... long association... maybe family (mortal) picnics when growing up, you know the kind of thing. She is in her late teens, early twenties... already pattern sensitized. Her speciality is endurance/strength... has been a competitive triathlete for years... winning, of course. ;-)
She would at least pose as not too impressed with Amber and its elders. I haven't figured out yet if she has seen that parent much... or even who it might be, but I don't think she would fear him, nor be thinking what she would want from him. Would be nice if the parent was not so self centered... but that is his problem. Very modern girl... but we can adjust that if we want to make them less earth-centric.
Do you think we should have full sibs for parents, or are halfsies ok?
I'll keep working on my concept... let me have your input as soon as you can and we'll go from there.--Darrell:
I will play a male, named: Byron. Early 20s. Pattern sensitized. A few points in Psyche, Endurance, and Strength. Sorcery. The rest in Warfare. Byron travels for extended periods to go to places where he can fight, both personal combat and armies. He loves going to new places, quickly getting the lay of the land, then joining a conflict on one side and occassionally making up a whole new side. He enjoys coming back to talk to you about it because you seem interested.
I was thinking of us having the same mother and the same father, but then you said cousins, then said full sibs or halfsies, so I am not sure what you are thinking.
I think it is normal that my parent is more powerful than I am. Just as it is normal that most people are less powerful than I am. I'm done with the whole like my parents versus rebellion thing. I had tried both when I was a child, but now see myself as more independent. I've always been angry that I don't get to go to Amber. Its my birthright and petty of them to deny it to me. My idea of a great parent would be one who wanted to go world hopping with me to share the adventure. I respect my parent for what they are able to do. I think my parent should confide in me and recognize me for the exceptional person I am. In terms of parents, I was thinking Diedre or Flora.--Simone:
Any adventuring either of you showed an interest in was encouraged by Flora if she happened to be around to hear of your plans in advance. Plane tickets, travel arrangements, whatever you'd need in that regard she never restricted.
--Anne:
I'm fine with all your choices... and perfectly willing to be full sibs... Flora is my parent of choice from your suggestions.Your sister's name is Meridian and she has just turned 20. She has the patience to listen to your tales of travel and derring do... when she is around. She does some travelling herself for her competitions, and she is also in school at university... studying art. Her life is full and enjoyable so she has not spent any time wishing for a place that still means nothing to her. She suspects she will not have any choice about going to Amber someday. Since I imagine Flora is not often with us, Meridian has developed a somewhat aloof attitude about her, her country, her family, etc. A great parent would be one that cared enough to stick around, but that's life.
Did we grow up with our father? Is he still around? Does Mother still have any kind of relationship with him?
--Simone:
Mother has relationships with many men and sometimes with more than one. When you were children, she took at least some pains to keep her activities out of your sight; usually, she arrived late and used the guest wing of the house. As you grew older, she no longer bothered much about it.Many of the men she brought home were strange-looking, sometimes very, very ugly or deformed or badly scarred.
Have you ever asked her directly about your father?
--Anne:
Meridian would definitely ask about her father... starting when she was pretty young and maybe continuing for more detail and better understanding as she grew older... she might want to see him if Mother will give that much info... if not, Meridian would probably try to use local channels to get her birth certificate and try that path.
--Darrell:
Byron asks Mom directly. Who is our father? If she does not answer directly then he would drop it.--Simone:
Eventually, she pulls out a creased black and white photograph. A strong jawed, silver haired man in a dashing suit, standing near an airplane. Flora looks fondly on it. On the back it says, "To my dearest little flower.""Handsome, isn't he?" she remarks. "He's dead now."
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Development
--Simone:
Okay, here's a start... Anne has asked a few structured questions about you two and Flora and your position in shadow; I'll answer those and offer a few ideas suggested by your development stuff below. Then if you have any more specific ideas, questions, past incidents that may give insight, etc. we can go over those...Childhood
--Anne:
What has mother told us about Amber and the Family? About Shadow? Are we in upstate NY... with or without our father? Does Flora interest herself in our Shadow lives? Any clues on our relationship will be appreciated.--Simone:
Flora has been involved in your lives off and on since you can remember. You were raised by an older couple who were caretakers of Flora's estate. Her visits were flitting and fleeting, and, at least in your youth, involved many presents and lots of hugging.When inclined to actually sit still for a moment -- and that was rare -- Flora would speak about her family, absolutely worthless creatures who, nonetheless, were apparently deadly dangerous. She seemed to have some spark of affection for Random since his crowning... like she had an easier time liking him now he was getting his comeuppance or something. She spoke about her sickly brother, Julian on several occasions, how she felt sorry for him and he was the most dangerous of all because he was like an injured beast. [Of course, when you later met Julian he didn't look sickly to you at all. He did look like a very dangerous man, but the frailty and illness your mother had spoken of was obviously either some conceit of her own or Julian was the best actor in the many worlds.]
According to Flora, none of your uncles would stand for Oberon. Not Corwin or Eric (each one was about half a man, she said, complete in every way, but just too small for the job); not Benedict (might as well be castrated); neither Bleys nor Brand, Caine nor Gerard (each only such a small fragment of a complete person with such shallow motives); and Random (faaaar too human). And all of them ready to bite or kill or use to defend their pathetic little part of the empire that was so obviously falling apart around them.
She has also told you basically the Corwin version of the events leading up to Patternfall, which she obviously found both terrifying and thrilling, in a way.
Flora went through a phase about 10 years ago for about a year where she stayed with you all a lot and was actually much more accessible. She involved herself a bit in your interests, and brought you to Amber for the second decade anniversary bash that Random had invited all of the shadow children to attend.
You learned this time period coincided with Brand's return from the Abyss and installment in Kashfa.
The man and woman who took care of you seemed competent, but were always more like caretakers than parents. They taught you what to do and what not to do, but very little of the whys and wherefors. The phrase, "If your mother wants you to know, she will tell you," became a fairly predictable part of your life. [Which suggests... what sorts of questions might you have saved up for Flora?] You were sent to expensive private schools with expensive private children whose upbringings were at least as bizarre as your own.
The library was always off limits to you as children (Trumps) as was a particular area of her estate where a grove of yew trees seemed to grow perfectly well. I'm sure they wouldn't strike children as odd, but any botanist would think yew trees should not be so happy to live in upstate New York. The grove was guarded by a very old wrought iron gate grown through with brambles. The area often smelled like dead birds and animals. The horses always acted weird when riding by it.
Yes, yes, I know, such places are especially designed to attract young, bright, curious children. The first time the oldest of you braved the hedgerow, you fell asleep, and awoke on the stone doorstep of the mansion with a very real terror for your life for no apparent reason. A dark, dirty handprint with very long fingers had stained your sleeve, and under the sleeve, a blue, painful bruise to match...
--Anne:
Timing things so that M was 10 years old when Mother came to spend most of a year with us and take us to the 2nd decade anniversary party in Amber, M is very puzzled about why all those uncles would be fighting over Amber... what is so great about it? Seems very backwater and provincial. She certainly doesn't see herself competing for a piece of that pie. The party was exciting... seeing all those people she had heard about, but never met; meeting all those cousins; but she was still a child and it sounds as if most of them were adults... too many adults she couldn't possibly figure out yet.
M is fond of Mother in a casual way... has no problem with hugs & gifts... thinks she is very pretty... would have liked to have her around more since she seems so permissive as a general rule. Thinks Mother is way too easy with men, but that is a fairly new opinion since M has just recently left the ranks of the virgins herself. Just a boyfriend... nothing serious... she would have told Mother if she was around before it had become too old news to share.How did Uncle Brand come back from the Abyss... isn't that really just another word for "dead"?
Another would be who/what is behind the fence in the grove of yews? M did not follow Byron in there.
--Darrell:
Of course it was Byron that went into the Yew grove. He quickly understood that his mother was providing him with a test. And a proper test, where the rules are unclear, the goals are unclear, and one needs to impose his will on things. After the first foray into the grove, and the bruise, Byron took the direct approach, with little expectation that it would succeed, he asked mother what is was. Assuming she did not reply and even if she did, he would have looked at it as a great puzzle to figure out. First he would have throroughly examined it from the outside. Then he would have gone it after making a variety of preparations, some involving weapons and some involving spells. He is grateful that mother gave him this wonderful puzzle to work out.--Simone:
Flora's first responses about the grove were that you children should not go there. She actually seemed upset.Later, after the first incident was discovered (unless you kids kept it secret), she would say that the grove leads to a very dangerous place, where the priveleges of your blood are not respected, and the disadvantages of youth and inexperience not pandered to.
--Darrell:
Byron would have learned to use every weapon he could find. He would start by learning what the experts said was the best and alternate ways of using it. Then he would have created a few of his own. Over time he developed a preference for oriental weapons, including a katana and watachi, throwing stars, poisons, bo, etc. He would have learned and mastered numerous oriental fighting styles. Subsequently his clothing leans toward silks in red and black.He learned all he could about magic. The big boost would have been after the 20 year celebration, when he was 15, at which he would have made contacts who could teach him more magic. His general approach to magic is that it is a weapon and should be treated like one. So he figured out how to combine magic into his fighting style. A specialty of his is teleporting to the right place in a fight, which allows him to be more effective. Being able to teleport multiple times became an extension of this, as it allowed him to be in multiple "right places" at the right time. He is careful to
spend half his time practicing without magic though, so he does not become dependent on it.--Simone:
Flora encourages your learning of magic in her own way. Being around her tends to make your spells fail or falter or go awry. When you ask her if she did that on purpose, she just arches an eyebrow. "I am but the least practitioner, my love," she might say if pushed.--Darrell:
Byron enjoy attending as many of Meridian's recitals and concerts as he can. He especially enjoys it when she is playing the cello or oboe. If she ever performs music that she composed herself, he attempts to write verse to go with the music. He hides this and does not talk about it, unless someone finds it by searching his room. He is a little embarassed and unsure it fits the rest of how he pictures himself. He tapes Meridians music and plays it while he works out. He wonders what she would think of him timing his weapon blows to create a beat that goes with the music. If she ever notices him do it, he would be shy about it at first, then want to talk about how certain styles of fighting create certain patterns of syncopation.After the 20th celebration, Byron will go to Amber regularly. He will attempt to learn what he can of his relatives by first hand experience. His goal is to learn about them, but equally to learn what he can about his mother by comparing the differences between his observations of his relatives with what she has said.
--Simone:
In one of his trips to Amber, Byron will certainly have seen the portrait hall, where the imposing picture of Oberon enthroned is hung. That's who the man in the picture looks like. It's not the same man, but a very similar-looking one.--Anne:
Meridian suspects she will not have any choice about going to Amber someday. Since I imagine Flora is not often with us, Meridian has developed a somewhat aloof attitude about her, her country, her family, etc. A great parent would be one that cared enough to stick around, but that's life.--Simone:
"That's it, love," Flora said one day, riffing Bette Davis, "pretend not to care. The sex is better that way, and you live longer." [And I'm thinking, "TMI, Mom, TMI!"]--Anne:
Byron's attempts to "solve" the puzzle of the Yew Garden do not exactly escape Meridian's notice--she tends his bruises as needed.She doesn't see that there is much wrong with Byron trying his "garden studies" as Mother would certainly not be surprised about it either. Byron must do what he must do--Meridian certainly wouldn't dream of stopping him.
Meridian believes that shoes make good weapons given half a chance. She doesn't believe in waving pointy things around to get attention--besides, a person could get hurt that way.
She gives her brother all the space he needs to do his "studies".
When her school friends ask about his black/red Asian silks--she casually implies that Byron might be adopted.
Meridian attracts friends that share her love of music, and her easy manner hides her real passion for it.
Meridian tries to keep a "laid back" response to any celebration of her music, but Byron's "big brother" admiration makes her glow inside. She shakes her head at his "accompaniments" to her work with sword and workout routines, but in his way, it is supportive of her passion for music.
Magic is not an interest of Meridian's and she tries to ignore all the teleportation and other experiments; as Byron might try to ignore Meridian's experiments in the kitchen. The day she offered him a 'watermelon milkshake' of her own design is writ large in household history. She forgot to take out the rind.
Meridian leads a privileged life and has never really had a "fight" with anyone about anything. She doesn't conceptualize needing self-defense. Mother's stories about contentious uncles don't have a personal connection to the world she was raised in.
In this way, she sees Byron's preoccupation with blade and challenges as a hobby or outlet for his zest and energy.
In this, she has sports and music to push her energies into.
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--Anne:
I have seen several e-mails describing how a number of the cousins see each other. I have not responded from Meridian since I have imagined her as young enough at 20 to not be familiar as an adult to any of them. I don't imagine she has been shadow traveling, and she has been to Amber only twice, or perhaps only once, since she was only a baby when the 1st decade party was held. I had thought that unless Simone advises that the time rate where we live is much faster than Amber, I will hold with that. Any different ideas for Byron? I noticed that you have not added your comments yet either.--Darrell:
I cced Simone so we can get a response from her on time on Earth versus Amber time. I will adjust depending on her response. Until she responds though, I think time is faster on Earth than on Amber. By my other email, you can see I have gone to Amber a few times.
I plan to send a quick note describing Byron to the rest, but do not plan on saying how Byron responds to the others, unless I get a direct email from one of them. If I do, I will respond and CC you, as I think Byron would tell you what he learns and does.
I was thinking Byron was born 5 years earlier than Meridian. So if you were 10 at the time of the 20th celebration, Byron was 15.--Simone:
Yep, it's a little faster... about 1.5 to 1. So actually Meridian could be nearly 15 and Byron, 20, by the time of the second party.* * *
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