Philomena Flores (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
apotropaic) wrote2012-03-09 07:50 pm
apotropaic) wrote2012-03-09 07:50 pm
ooc >> information
Character Name: Philomena Flores.
Played By: Israel Hilton.
Physical Description: Philomena is 5’6” and extremely petite, with peroxide blonde hair (naturally a dark brown that hasn’t seen the sun in years) hazel-green eyes and pale skin. She has several small tattoos (tbd) and her septum is pierced. She’s very pretty and nearly always makes an effort in her appearance –even on her off days she likes to apply a bit of concealer and some lip gloss, not so much for anyone else as to make herself feel pretty. She’s incredibly performative in her femininity and it’s something she enjoys and does consciously.
Most days she dresses in loud, bold colours: black and pink, black and red, although she has a soft spot for pastels and lemon yellow and she likes to experiment with styles. She loves costume jewellery and kitsch accessories, high heels (the more outrageous the better) and anything that shows off her legs. In general she comes across as a poised, confident young woman who has a bright smile for everyone.
Sexuality: Philomena is incredibly aware of the power that sexuality has. Her ancestors, the Grigori, were the ones to teach seduction and magic to the mortal women they bedded and ever since then their witch progeny have had a sliiight tendency to drive men crazy (not always literally.) Philomena is no exception: this is a girl who knows that she’s good-looking and she can bypass the danger that most trans* women face because witches can do way worse than any non-magical, cisgendered male. She has a tendency to flirt, tease and play cat-and-mouse games with boys, but never takes it any further. As a result, most people tend to think that she’s promiscuous. In reality she’s very wary about opening up emotionally to other people and knows that not everyone will react nicely to the fact that she's trans*. She doesn't always want to deal with that every time she just wants to like a cute boy.
World Information: London Mysteries Original Flavour AKA regular looking present day Earth that is actually a piñata filled with horrors.
History: Philomena's maternal side of the family is vast, mostly of Spanish Mexican descent, and while California has been the 'family seat' for the past couple of generations, it certainly hasn't stopped members of the family going walk abouts in the world. Especially the more magically inclined, who tend to come and go as they please.
Her mother was in her early-thirties when she decided she wanted to have a baby. The fact that she wasn't married or attracted to men didn't do much to stop her. Nine months later, with the donation of a friend and with no complications beyond the usual symptoms of pregnancy, Maria thought she had given birth to a baby boy. That assumption was turned upside down when, at three-years-old, 'he' made an imaginary friend that turned out to be the ghost of an old woman who had died in the apartment two floors down.
Sorcerers in their world had to really work at learning magic; witches were born with a natural inclination. Maria didn't jump to conclusions because her baby liked to play with dolls and try on high heels as well as roll in the mud and watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It wasn't until she was called in after the first day of Kindergarten and told her kid had clobbed two boys over the head with a plastic bucket for refusing to call her a girl that she suspected how things were going to go.
Her grandmother was the one to re-name her Philomena, which meant 'daughter of light' or beloved, because as far as they were concerned that's what she was. Bureaucratic and public life was different, of course, and the school and social services became concerned at one point (not that that went...well. On their part. Angry lady relatives are terrifying, witches even more so.) Philomena caught on to how the world worked and how it worked for her at a young age. For the most part during Elementary school, she did her best to go unnoticed, which it turned out she had a talent for (illusion casting --much to her mother's exasperation at times). Other times she lashed out at classmates who bullied her. Most of the time they left her alone and she was labelled the playground's freak.
By the time Middle School rolled around, her mother had literally pulled out all the stops to find a decent gender counselor who would treat a minor and prescribe hormone blockers. That meant they had to relocate to San Fransisco and along with her growing mastery of illusions, Philomena started to present as a girl. Maria's attempt to get her to go along to a youth support group led to Philomena meeting a bunch of like-minded kids going 'fuck you' to the world. Which meant sneaking out at night, going to gay clubs, the whole nine yards and then some. Her growing mastery in illusions came in handy when fake ID's didn't cut it and everyone quickly learned that a night out with Philomena was a wild, fun one. The girl just made things happen.
Maria sent her away to live with her grandmother who made her cool her heels and encouraged her to use her creative talents as an outlet. When she went back to High School, she focused intensely on art, pulled up her grades and was approved for HRT. When it was time to apply for colleges, she had that same need to go wandering as other people in her family. She pulled out some stops of her own (especially for scholarships) to gain admittance to an art college in the London.
The UK was like another world but it was one that she needed. She channeled her energy into a lot of activities: course work (obviously), student politics, kickboxing (aggression doesn't make you more manly or less womanly, after all), part-time work and the usual busy social life. In the last year of her degree she's launched an online site for her jewellery and goes around various markets and festivals to flog her gear.
Powers: Philomena is a witch of the old blood lines, meaning that she's a descendent of the Nephilim (the children of angels and mortal women). The power of witches in her world varies depending on how diluted their blood is and how much practice they've had, but Philomena was lucky enough to be born into a family with strong ties and traditions.
Spellcasting: involves a lot of ritual (which she has a space set up for in any residence) and doesn't usually have instantaneous results. A lot of the spells she has are scanned from books that her family own onto her laptop although many she can recite from memory. She's also very good at making charms, talismans and amulets; making jewellery and magic are her areas of expertise.
Dream-walking: performed by a ritual, Philomena can enter the unconscious mind of a human being to plant suggestion or discourage an idea, or investigate their mind. All witches in her world can share their own dreams with each other.
Sight: the ability to recognise supernatural beings and phenomena.
Venemous blood: if any vampires or cruorovores try to eat her, they're going to slowly corrode from the inside out! Her blood in general is pretty poisonous and shouldn't be consumed or donated to anyone. Although current discrimination against gay men and trans women rules that out in her own world anyway.
Illusion casting: one of Philomena's earliest manifesting talents (she once made the walls of her room appear pink in a five-year-old whim of fancy!) It works very similar to the fey concept of glamour but, combined with the power of Suggestion, she can really make people believe that they're feeling and experiencing something that isn't there i.e. someone who called her a particularly awful slur was convinced that insects were crawling and biting him over and over until he was finally able to run away.
Suggestion: so long as eye-contact is involved, Philomena can plant an idea into the mind of someone susceptible. Supernatural beings sensitive to it are able to resist.
Element manipulation: this can be done on a bigger scale in tandem with other witches. By herself she's working on temperature manipulation i.e. one hand up to the fire, another in a bucket of water to make it boil.
Resistance: Witches have a natural resistance to mind control and illusions. Philomena can be tricked, but with a natural aptitude for illusions herself, it takes a lot.
Talents/Abilities: On top of being a pretty skilled witch at a young age, Philomena has graduated with that BA (Hons) in Fine Art and is quite the talented jewellery designer.
She's also spent the past three years kickboxing on a regular basis as a way to manage and relieve pent up frustrations. What she lacks in body strength and height, she makes up for in speed and vicious determination.
As far as part-time jobs are concerned, she worked part-time at a Clinique counter in a department store and knows a ton about make-up and how to apply it. She also took a nail technician course one summer as something fun to do that could help ends meet on the side.
Personality: Philomena's usual setting is a cheery, good natured-friendliness to offset her usually flamboyant appearance. People might have a tendency to think that she's immature or silly but it's partly for show - she doesn't take herself seriously, she's aware of how performative she is in the way she dresses and acts - and it's partly because she loves anything outrageous. It's a double-sided battle plan: 1. the people who stare and act nasty get killed with kindness and mentally noted for any future encounters and 2. the people who smile back usually tend to be her kind of people. It's a win-win as far as she's concerned.
If someone were to scratch away at that, they'd realise there's a 'seen it all before' cynical attitude that isn't strictly true. While Philomena has a very unique perspective of the world, being a trans woman, a witch, and having seen and done a lot for someone in their early-twenties, she's still young and even vulnerable at times. She's a passionate, emotional person and her attitude is a well practiced coping mechanism because she knows exactly how unfair the world can be in both the mundane and supernatural sense. It frustrates her beyond belief. The chin-up determined toughness is a facade for someone who's still young, not quite able to let go of the things that have hurt her, and will do everything she can not to let herself get hurt again. She walks around with her defences up before she can be attacked. Or else she's the one to push first.
She deals with those frustrations by channeling them into something productive and somewhere along the way, she became a savvy, ambitious young woman, who made the world give her the opportunities necessary to succeed. She isn't ridiculously confident (there's either a shyness or a forced boldness that takes over when she's unsure) but she keeps a poise about her and puts that sunny disposition to good use. She's good at getting her way.
Anyone who does try to knock her down will find she's surprisingly resilient and can be downright vicious if pressed. That sweet, friendly side is genuine, but she's seen what the world does to nice people. Sometimes it's good to be a little bit bad and it's not a practice she feels guilty about. She's also a shameless enabler when it comes to other people, more out of the sense that people need to get pushed out of their comfort zones rather than "let's push some buttons and see what happens."
To speak a little about her gender identity for a moment: Philomena has always and will always identify as a woman. In a way, she's led a charmed (ha) life as a trans woman. She was raised in an unconventional family who supported her 100%, which means she's very secure in her sense of self and identity. Adding to that is the fact that magic marked her as a woman, and you can't really argue with that. Of course, living in a society that doesn't recognise your needs is anger inducing and depressing, something which has added to her constant sense of frustration at the world and her "I'll show them" attitude.
Played By: Israel Hilton.
Physical Description: Philomena is 5’6” and extremely petite, with peroxide blonde hair (naturally a dark brown that hasn’t seen the sun in years) hazel-green eyes and pale skin. She has several small tattoos (tbd) and her septum is pierced. She’s very pretty and nearly always makes an effort in her appearance –even on her off days she likes to apply a bit of concealer and some lip gloss, not so much for anyone else as to make herself feel pretty. She’s incredibly performative in her femininity and it’s something she enjoys and does consciously.
Most days she dresses in loud, bold colours: black and pink, black and red, although she has a soft spot for pastels and lemon yellow and she likes to experiment with styles. She loves costume jewellery and kitsch accessories, high heels (the more outrageous the better) and anything that shows off her legs. In general she comes across as a poised, confident young woman who has a bright smile for everyone.
Sexuality: Philomena is incredibly aware of the power that sexuality has. Her ancestors, the Grigori, were the ones to teach seduction and magic to the mortal women they bedded and ever since then their witch progeny have had a sliiight tendency to drive men crazy (not always literally.) Philomena is no exception: this is a girl who knows that she’s good-looking and she can bypass the danger that most trans* women face because witches can do way worse than any non-magical, cisgendered male. She has a tendency to flirt, tease and play cat-and-mouse games with boys, but never takes it any further. As a result, most people tend to think that she’s promiscuous. In reality she’s very wary about opening up emotionally to other people and knows that not everyone will react nicely to the fact that she's trans*. She doesn't always want to deal with that every time she just wants to like a cute boy.
World Information: London Mysteries Original Flavour AKA regular looking present day Earth that is actually a piñata filled with horrors.
History: Philomena's maternal side of the family is vast, mostly of Spanish Mexican descent, and while California has been the 'family seat' for the past couple of generations, it certainly hasn't stopped members of the family going walk abouts in the world. Especially the more magically inclined, who tend to come and go as they please.
Her mother was in her early-thirties when she decided she wanted to have a baby. The fact that she wasn't married or attracted to men didn't do much to stop her. Nine months later, with the donation of a friend and with no complications beyond the usual symptoms of pregnancy, Maria thought she had given birth to a baby boy. That assumption was turned upside down when, at three-years-old, 'he' made an imaginary friend that turned out to be the ghost of an old woman who had died in the apartment two floors down.
Sorcerers in their world had to really work at learning magic; witches were born with a natural inclination. Maria didn't jump to conclusions because her baby liked to play with dolls and try on high heels as well as roll in the mud and watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It wasn't until she was called in after the first day of Kindergarten and told her kid had clobbed two boys over the head with a plastic bucket for refusing to call her a girl that she suspected how things were going to go.
Her grandmother was the one to re-name her Philomena, which meant 'daughter of light' or beloved, because as far as they were concerned that's what she was. Bureaucratic and public life was different, of course, and the school and social services became concerned at one point (not that that went...well. On their part. Angry lady relatives are terrifying, witches even more so.) Philomena caught on to how the world worked and how it worked for her at a young age. For the most part during Elementary school, she did her best to go unnoticed, which it turned out she had a talent for (illusion casting --much to her mother's exasperation at times). Other times she lashed out at classmates who bullied her. Most of the time they left her alone and she was labelled the playground's freak.
By the time Middle School rolled around, her mother had literally pulled out all the stops to find a decent gender counselor who would treat a minor and prescribe hormone blockers. That meant they had to relocate to San Fransisco and along with her growing mastery of illusions, Philomena started to present as a girl. Maria's attempt to get her to go along to a youth support group led to Philomena meeting a bunch of like-minded kids going 'fuck you' to the world. Which meant sneaking out at night, going to gay clubs, the whole nine yards and then some. Her growing mastery in illusions came in handy when fake ID's didn't cut it and everyone quickly learned that a night out with Philomena was a wild, fun one. The girl just made things happen.
Maria sent her away to live with her grandmother who made her cool her heels and encouraged her to use her creative talents as an outlet. When she went back to High School, she focused intensely on art, pulled up her grades and was approved for HRT. When it was time to apply for colleges, she had that same need to go wandering as other people in her family. She pulled out some stops of her own (especially for scholarships) to gain admittance to an art college in the London.
The UK was like another world but it was one that she needed. She channeled her energy into a lot of activities: course work (obviously), student politics, kickboxing (aggression doesn't make you more manly or less womanly, after all), part-time work and the usual busy social life. In the last year of her degree she's launched an online site for her jewellery and goes around various markets and festivals to flog her gear.
Powers: Philomena is a witch of the old blood lines, meaning that she's a descendent of the Nephilim (the children of angels and mortal women). The power of witches in her world varies depending on how diluted their blood is and how much practice they've had, but Philomena was lucky enough to be born into a family with strong ties and traditions.
Spellcasting: involves a lot of ritual (which she has a space set up for in any residence) and doesn't usually have instantaneous results. A lot of the spells she has are scanned from books that her family own onto her laptop although many she can recite from memory. She's also very good at making charms, talismans and amulets; making jewellery and magic are her areas of expertise.
Dream-walking: performed by a ritual, Philomena can enter the unconscious mind of a human being to plant suggestion or discourage an idea, or investigate their mind. All witches in her world can share their own dreams with each other.
Sight: the ability to recognise supernatural beings and phenomena.
Venemous blood: if any vampires or cruorovores try to eat her, they're going to slowly corrode from the inside out! Her blood in general is pretty poisonous and shouldn't be consumed or donated to anyone. Although current discrimination against gay men and trans women rules that out in her own world anyway.
Illusion casting: one of Philomena's earliest manifesting talents (she once made the walls of her room appear pink in a five-year-old whim of fancy!) It works very similar to the fey concept of glamour but, combined with the power of Suggestion, she can really make people believe that they're feeling and experiencing something that isn't there i.e. someone who called her a particularly awful slur was convinced that insects were crawling and biting him over and over until he was finally able to run away.
Suggestion: so long as eye-contact is involved, Philomena can plant an idea into the mind of someone susceptible. Supernatural beings sensitive to it are able to resist.
Element manipulation: this can be done on a bigger scale in tandem with other witches. By herself she's working on temperature manipulation i.e. one hand up to the fire, another in a bucket of water to make it boil.
Resistance: Witches have a natural resistance to mind control and illusions. Philomena can be tricked, but with a natural aptitude for illusions herself, it takes a lot.
Talents/Abilities: On top of being a pretty skilled witch at a young age, Philomena has graduated with that BA (Hons) in Fine Art and is quite the talented jewellery designer.
She's also spent the past three years kickboxing on a regular basis as a way to manage and relieve pent up frustrations. What she lacks in body strength and height, she makes up for in speed and vicious determination.
As far as part-time jobs are concerned, she worked part-time at a Clinique counter in a department store and knows a ton about make-up and how to apply it. She also took a nail technician course one summer as something fun to do that could help ends meet on the side.
Personality: Philomena's usual setting is a cheery, good natured-friendliness to offset her usually flamboyant appearance. People might have a tendency to think that she's immature or silly but it's partly for show - she doesn't take herself seriously, she's aware of how performative she is in the way she dresses and acts - and it's partly because she loves anything outrageous. It's a double-sided battle plan: 1. the people who stare and act nasty get killed with kindness and mentally noted for any future encounters and 2. the people who smile back usually tend to be her kind of people. It's a win-win as far as she's concerned.
If someone were to scratch away at that, they'd realise there's a 'seen it all before' cynical attitude that isn't strictly true. While Philomena has a very unique perspective of the world, being a trans woman, a witch, and having seen and done a lot for someone in their early-twenties, she's still young and even vulnerable at times. She's a passionate, emotional person and her attitude is a well practiced coping mechanism because she knows exactly how unfair the world can be in both the mundane and supernatural sense. It frustrates her beyond belief. The chin-up determined toughness is a facade for someone who's still young, not quite able to let go of the things that have hurt her, and will do everything she can not to let herself get hurt again. She walks around with her defences up before she can be attacked. Or else she's the one to push first.
She deals with those frustrations by channeling them into something productive and somewhere along the way, she became a savvy, ambitious young woman, who made the world give her the opportunities necessary to succeed. She isn't ridiculously confident (there's either a shyness or a forced boldness that takes over when she's unsure) but she keeps a poise about her and puts that sunny disposition to good use. She's good at getting her way.
Anyone who does try to knock her down will find she's surprisingly resilient and can be downright vicious if pressed. That sweet, friendly side is genuine, but she's seen what the world does to nice people. Sometimes it's good to be a little bit bad and it's not a practice she feels guilty about. She's also a shameless enabler when it comes to other people, more out of the sense that people need to get pushed out of their comfort zones rather than "let's push some buttons and see what happens."
To speak a little about her gender identity for a moment: Philomena has always and will always identify as a woman. In a way, she's led a charmed (ha) life as a trans woman. She was raised in an unconventional family who supported her 100%, which means she's very secure in her sense of self and identity. Adding to that is the fact that magic marked her as a woman, and you can't really argue with that. Of course, living in a society that doesn't recognise your needs is anger inducing and depressing, something which has added to her constant sense of frustration at the world and her "I'll show them" attitude.